Re: Mardy Fish
Here's a nice article about Mardy from his old hometown paper in FL
Stock on the rise
Mardy Fish's profile is soaring as he prepares for the NASDAQ-100 Open and a possible berth on the U.S. Davis Cup team.
By Steve Megargee staff writer
March 24, 2004
Mardy Fish always has considered playing Davis Cup his career highlight.
Now the former Vero Beach resident appears on the verge of representing the United States in front of his family and friends.
Fish, the 17th-ranked tennis player in the world, is expected to be part of the U.S. team that faces Sweden in a Davis Cup quarterfinal April 9-11 at Delray Beach. U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe has until Tuesday to announce his squad.
"It would be awesome," said Fish, who now lives in Tampa. "There are a lot of people I know from that area, so it would be special and exciting. It would be really cool, having grown up in that area."
Fish's last chance to make a favorable impression comes when he enters the NASDAQ-100 Open that begins today and runs through April 4 at Key Biscayne. As the No. 16 seed, Fish has a first-round bye and faces a qualifier in the second round.
"I don't want to dwell on thinking that if I lose in the first round, I'm not going to be playing Davis Cup," Fish said. "I think over the past couple of months, I've shown Patrick what I can do. I've had some good, solid wins and some consistent results. I don't think that if I don't do well in one tournament that it should weigh as much, but it is right before the selection."
Andy Roddick, ranked third in the world, is a lock to earn one of the singles spots for the Davis Cup quarterfinal. Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan -- the top-ranked doubles team in the world -- will play doubles for the United States.
Contenders for the second singles position include Fish (17th in the world), Robby Ginepri (35th), Vincent Spadea (36th), Taylor Dent (37th) and James Blake (39th). McEnroe said last week that Fish had posted the best recent performances of that group.
Fish reached the round of 16 last week at Indian Wells, Calif., before losing to eventual champion Roger Federer, the top-ranked player in the world.
Last month, Fish finished second to Roddick at San Jose, Calif., and fell to possible Davis Cup opponent Joachim Johansson in the the semifinals at Memphis. Fish owns a 6-1 career record against potential Swedish Davis Cup players Johansson, Robin Soderling, Thomas Enqvist and Jonas Bjorkman.
Fish has advanced to the top 20 primarily because he possesses of one of the circuit's most reliable serves. He held serve for 92 consecutive games during one stretch last summer that included a run to the Cincinnati Masters final.
"My goal going into a match is to try and hold serve every time," Fish said. "If I do that, I know I'm usually going to win."
Fish can only remember two times when he dropped a match in which he never lost his serve. But those two incidents came in high-profile events -- a 4-6, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4) loss to Roddick in last year's Cincinnati Masters final and a 7-6 (0), 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4) defeat against Ivo Karlovic in the first round of this year's Australian Open.
Fish knows he must improve his return if he wants to meet his goal of reaching the top 10 by the end of the year.
"I focus so much on my serve that when my return games come I tend to let up a little bit," Fish said. "It's something I definitely need to work on. I'm well aware of the fact that I need to try to break serve more than I am now."