There were some interesting exchanges between players a few days ago.
The “row” started after recently retired Croat Ivan Ljubicic posted the following Tweet.
“Wonder how our tour would look if European players were skipping American tourneys the way Americans are skipping European Tournaments”
This understandly provoked responses from American’s including Mardy Fish who has missed the two clay Masters due to an undisclosed illness.
“Some of us aren’t skipping tournaments bc we want to do ur homework before u make dumb generalized comments,”
John Isner & Andy Roddick spoke out in defense of their countryman with their own Tweets
Roddick
“I know for a fact that @mardyfish is going through some serious physical issues right now. … Irresponsible tweet by @ivanljubicic1. … also I definitely always respect the choices of ATP tour veterans because I know all of us do what’s in the best interest of our health and our careers. … I expect the same in return “
Isner
“Pretty sure Mardy Fish is sick,”
A short while after Ljubicic posted another comment to help diffuse the row.
“My tweet regarding american &european players was to open the discussion rather than offend somebody. But I see some people got offended. And I am sorry for that. Wasn’t the plan. And I definitely wish @MardyFish fast recovery!!!”
Hopefully players will think before hitting the “Tweet” button.
The blue clay may not be the only talking point in Madrid this weekend. Another high profile player, 4th Seed Andy Murray, has today withdrawn from the tournament.
This is in addition to the earlier story we brought you regarding the withdraw of Americian duo Andy Roddick & Mardy Fish, the former also pulling out of Rome.
A back injury is the reason behind the withdraw.
“It is with regret that on doctors advice I have to withdraw from the Mutua Madrid Open with injury,” Murray said in a statement on the Madrid website. “I always love coming to Madrid so it is a big disappointment. I look forward to returning next year and wish everyone a great week of tennis.”
Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, an early casualty in Munich this week, will take the No. 4 seed slot. The draw for the tournament will be held on Saturday afternoon.
The American number one, Mardy Fish has continued his poor form in 2012 with a second round loss to Michael Russell in the Houston clay court championship.
Fish was the number one seed at the event and despite his recent disappointments, was expected to come through his encounter with his compatriot. Russell, who came through qualifying, did play some inspiring tennis but if Mardy was playing even half as good as he is capable of he would have won, it seemed as if his first serve had deserted him in the second set and his backhand failed to penetrate the court, with unforced errors flying off his racquet.
If this had been a continuation of the hard court season then although it would have been disappointing it wouldn’t be as bad whereas this is the beginning of the clay court swing! Mardy has a chance to prepare well for the clay season but it seems as if he is determined to slide down the rankings and ruin all the hard work from 2011, whats worse is that he has chosen not too participate in the Monte Carlo Masters in the coming week. Luckily Fish has hardly any points to defend in Madrid, however he will need to be playing well by Rome and of course Roland Garros as he has a lot of points to defend and if he crashes out early, he will be looking at dropping outside the top 10!
Gael Monfils has been forced to withdraw from the French team due to play the USA in the 2nd Round of this years Davis Cup.
During a practice session on Sunday he developed pain and a subsequent MRI scan has revealed a lesion on his left oblique muscle. This injury will need approximately 15 days to heal putting his entry into the Monte-Carlo Masters at risk, the tournament starts on Monday 16 April. French Captain, Guy Forget, is yet to name a replacement.
Mardy Fish has not travelled with the USA team after a health scare brought about by a “heavy playing schedule”. Doctors advised the 30 year old to rest and team Captain Jim Courier has called on the services of young hopeful Ryan Harrison.
‘I’m extremely disappointed that I am physically unable to join the team,’ read a statement from Fish. ‘I had a minor health scare in Miami last week and stayed in Florida to heed the doctor’s recommendation to rest for a few days.
‘I hope to be able to resume my training later this week and possibly compete next week in Houston. I value every opportunity to compete in Davis Cup and wish I could be with my teammates this week.’
I never knew that Juan Monaco was dating model Zaira Nara. Well anyways.. Juan Monaco had a great birthday yesterday as he defeated Mardy Fish in the quarterfinals of the Sony Ericsson Open and the win was watch by his girlfriend. Wonder what present she gave him for his birthday.
My main man, world number 4 Andy Murray hasn’t had much luck the last couple of years in Miami, since winning the tournament in 2009 Murray has failed to win a set, let alone a match at the Sony Ericsson open in Key Biscayne, with defeats to Mardy Fish in 2010 and Russian veteran Alex Bogomolov, Jr in 2011. Andy’s been having a ball in Miami this year, after his shock defeat in Indian Wells, he set off for Miami for early preparations with his coach Ivan Lendl and the work seems to have paid off! While Murray hasn’t really been tested yet, its been good to see him progress and not fall at the first hurdle as he has so done the last 2 years. Andy wiped out Alejandro Falla in round 2 after being byed through the first round, his promising match up with Milos Raonic wasn’t meant to be as the Canadian withdrew from their 3rd round clash with a right ankle injury, which meant Andy had reached a 4th round encounter with Gilles Simon.
The first game of the match, with Murray serving, was what I expected from two natural counter punchers, both playing differently paced balls and trying to force an error. The opening game lasted 17 minutes, with 7 deuces and 3 thrilling break points, but Murray’s defensive capabilities were too much for Simon and he held serve. The Frenchman was able to keep his first service game short, but not as short as Murray’s next service game, Andy used the 1-2 punch effectively against Simon, stepping in and taking the ball early to stop Simon’s incredible defensive techniques having any use, which led him to break the Frenchman’s serve. The remainder of the set went with serve, Murray came out to serve for it, earning 3 set points, he hit a second serve ace up the Tee to seal the first set.
Simon was unable to make any impact on the Murray serve throughout the second set, so he did his best to hold serve. The Frenchman held from 0-40 to lead 3-2 but was broken to 15 on his next service game. Simon couldn’t cope with some sensational shot making from the British number 1, including a so very precise forehand lob landing on the outer edge of the baseline. Andy very quickly earned 3 match points and finished up with an ace. The Brit plays 9th seed Janko Tipsarevic in the Quarters, with Andy leading their head to head 4-3, The world number 3′s performance today was a reassuring one and he should be extremely positive with his chances of repeating his 2009 success in Miami.
Matthew Ebden has had yet another great win at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. Ebden defeated Julien Benneteau in the first round and now he has defeated Mardy Fish (world number 8).
Ebden defeated Fish 6-3 6-4 in one hour and 25 mintures. This is Ebden’s first win against a top 10 player and even if he losses his next round match to John Isner, he will pick up some great points and move much higher than 91 in the world.
“Especially in America, to beat the top player here is, it’s an incredible feeling,” Ebden said. “Very big win. I’m pleased with my progress.”
Mardy Fish struggled in Melbourne and is out of the Australian Open 2012. Fish lost to Alejandro Falla 6-7 3-6 6-7 and freely expressed his irritation that Falla was treated for cramps at the change of ends.
“I see that guy’s called the trainer three, four times, however many times he was out there. It’s hot and I’m down two sets to love and I’m looking for anything to sort of gain the momentum a little bit. They’re making the balls bigger and heavier. They’re making it to where it’s such a physical match now that you’re going to have guys that are going to abuse that a lot. So, yeah, I thought he was having some physical issues. But then in between on every point he was totally fine.
We have reached the last tournament of the ATP season featuring the 8 best players of the year competing for the ultimate honor in men’s tennis. Let’s take a look at the two groups and who will feature in each one.
Group A:
1. Novak Djokovic
3. Andy Murray
5. David Ferrer
7. Tomas Berdych
Group B:
2. Rafael Nadal
4. Roger Federer
6. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
8. Mardy Fish
Play is due to start on Sunday November 20, 2011 at 7 am Eastern time with coverage being streamed on the Tennis Channel in the US. First up is Group B with Federer vs Tsonga and later on Nadal vs Fish. There should be some very good tennis up on display during the week and it will be exciting to see which of the Top 4 will hold up best, or if a dark horse should emerge from the shadows to claim the title at this year’s year-ending championships. Stay tuned!
Mardy Fish is still going strong towards the end of 2011. Mardy has defeated Bernard Tomic to make the semifinals of the Japan Open. Im really surprised how good Fish has been playing in the second half of 2011. Hopefully he can improve over the summer and be ready for even better results at the Australian Open.
Labor Day at the US Open wasnt a great day for Mardy Fish. Fish was very upset after dropping his first service game in the final set of his match against Jo Wilfried Tsonga.
But it was hugs at the net in the end.
Mardy did his best to explain the incident in the pressroom:
“I was talking to the umpire. I probably shouldn’t have said that. Like I said, we were fired up,” Fish said.
Jo-Wilfried revealed himself to be completely unreasonable and probably a dumbass:
“I just hear he was a bit upset at somebody in my box,” Tsonga said. “So, you know, I think we are just here to play tennis. I just said, ‘Okay, I will go tell them to stop, and that’s it.’ There is no problem.”
“With Mardy, it’s all the time friendly. It’s good.”
Players at the US Open have been worrying about Hurricane Irene. Mardy Fish tweeted his Hurricane pack! The message associated with the picture was, “Bring it Irene!”
Mardy Fish v. Tobias Kamke- Enjoying by far the best year of his career, Mardy Fish will be looking to make a deep run in the 2011 US Open. In the first round he will be facing Tobias Kamke from Germany. Kamke will be no light task as the speedy Germany possesses an all around game with no overwhelming weaknesses. Kamke generates a ton of racket speed off both sides and will be looking to dictate play from the baseline by taking the ball early when given the opportunity. With this being said, Fish will undoubtedly have to work but should be able to make it through unscathed.
Prediction:Fish in 3
Roger Federer v. Santiago Giraldo- This first round match is about as lopsided as it gets. Giraldo is a defensive baseliner from Colombia who does not have any weapons to threaten Federer and really prefers the Clay courts to which his style of play is much better suited. Federer should be able to use this match to build form for the rest of the tournament. I don’t see any possible way for Federer to lose this match barring an injury.
Prediction: Federer in 3
Ryan Harrison v. Marin Cilic- This is an extremely intriguing matchup. You have the young American upstart in Ryan Harrison looking to breakthrough in a major for the first time and accelerate his already inclining career path. In contrast, Marin Cilic is attempting to regain the form that cemented his spot in the top 10 and spurred him to an Australian Open semifinal in 2010. Cilic has not won a grand slam match this season and this match very well could lead to his completion of a “grand slam”- losing in the first round of all four majors. Look for Harrison to relentlessly attack the Cilic forehand as it contains a lot of wrist action and is prone to breaking down. Overall, I think Harrison plays a more reliable, gutsy, confidence driven game and at this moment is in a better spot in his career despite being ranked lower.
Prediction: Harrison in 4
Gael Monfils v. Grigor Dimitrov- This is an absolutely fantastic first round match between quite possibly the future of men’s tennis in Dimitrov and arguably the most electrifying player on tour in Monfils. Dimitrov is surely going to give Monfils everything he can handle and really make him work hard to earn his passage through to the 2nd round. This match will really be predicated on whether the passive or aggressive Monfils shows up. If Monfils chooses to camp back 2 miles behind the baseline and retrieve with his exceptional defensive abilities, he really is not setting himself up with the best chance to win. Dimitrov has incredible shot making ability and if he is on, playing defensive is simply not going to work out for Monfils. If Monfils chooses to play more offensively, this could be a slugfest. I expect Monfils will draw substantial confidence from his performance against Novak Djokovic in Cincinnati and in the end find a suitable balance between offense and defense that will be too much for Dimitrov to counter.
Prediction: Monfils in 4
Ivo Karlovic v. Fernando Gonzalez- Many people might be surprised to find out that Fernando Gonzalez in fact still does play tennis being he has only played 6 tour level matches this season. Plagued by a knee injury in the first half of 2011, Gonzo faces a formidable challenge in the big serving Croatian. I really see this match as one that is going to be very difficult for Gonzalez to win. Only having played one hard court match this summer, Gonzo is lacking match play and there is no worse player to try to develop rhythm against than Karlovic.
Prediction: Karlovic in 4 (expect a few tiebreakers)
Kohlschreiber v. Stepanek- Stepanek has enjoyed greater success on the American hard courts than Kohlschreiber this summer and leads their head to head 4-1. Kohlschreiber is a personal favorite of mine but unfortunately the craft and finesse of Stepanek will prove too much for the German.
Prediction: Stepanek in 4 tight sets
Other Matches:
Malisse v. Granollers- Toss up match. Neither player has won a hard court match this summer and Granollers has not even played in a hard court tournament. This is a tough call, but I am going to say the X-man in five unentertaining sets.
Prediction: Malisse in 5
Monaco v. Seppi- This could be a long, drawn out match as both of these guys prefer to grind it out from the baseline. Monaco definitely has a greater ability to turn defense into offense and pull the trigger.
Prediction: Monaco in 5
Rounding off Day 1…
Montanes over Kukushkin in 5, Ferrero over Andujar in 3, Dolgpolov over Gil in 3, Petzschner over Ramos in 3, Fognini over Zeballos in 5, Llodra over Hanescu in 3, Tipsarevic over Gensse in 3, Nishikori over Cipolla in 3, Gasquet over Stakhovsky in 3, Haas over Dasnieres De Veigy in 5, Troicki over Falla in 4, Berdych of Jouan in 3, Anderson over Soeda in 3
Upsets: Sela over Bellucci in 4, Jaziri over De Bakker in 5
If you were to ask the casual tennis fan to name as many American male tennis players off of the top of their head as possible, most would easily name Mardy Fish, Andy Roddick, and John Isner. After these three, a blank would be drawn. The lack of resurgence from American male players since the end of the Sampras-Agassi era has been disappointing in the eyes of many fans to say the least. The only two American players to have reached a Grand Slam semifinal since 2003 are Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick. In the defense of American players, the male game has become very top heavy in recent years with Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic becoming fixtures in the final four of majors.
The letdown of American male tennis players in the last 5-7 years is often viewed the wrong way. Many have been led to believe that there simply has been a lag in American talent. This statement is easily falsifiable. Currently, there are 10 Americans in the top 100 in the world. This is the most of any country apart from Spain, which has 13 men ranked in the top 100.
Now this begs question of has there actually been a letdown of talent or a failure of high expectations? I think undoubtedly the latter is the answer. Following the legacies of greats such as Agassi, Sampras, and Courier is no short task. It would be unreasonable to expect any group of any players from any country during any time period to achieve on the same level as these Americans did during the 80s’ and 90s.
If you go back in history, the only county since the beginning of the open era (1968) to achieve something comparable to what the Americans of the 1990′s achieved were Swedes in the 70s and 80s. Wilander, Borg, and Edberg combined for 24 grand slams over an 18 year period. The combination of Agassi, Sampras, Courier, collected 27 grandslams in 13 years.
A prime example of a player that has “failed” in the eyes of many Americans is Donald Young. When Donald Young was 15 people were sighting him as the next big star and a shoe in as a future number one based on his success at Junior National Championships in Kalamazoo which he was winning. Currently ranked 89th in the world, Young is 22 and already considered a bust. It is extremely premature to declare the career of a 22 year old a disappointment. Recently, many players have enjoyed their greatest successes near the end of their careers. Two examples of this are Mardy Fish, who has surged to a career high ranking of number 7 at age 29 and Jurgen Melzer, a journeymen Austrian who made his deepest career run in every single major coincidentally at the age of 29.
With players on the rise such as Mardy Fish, Ryan Harrison, Sam Querrey, Donald Young, John Isner, Alex Bogomolov Jr. , and Ryan Sweeting the future of American tennis appears to be very promising. And while this group of players will unlikely achieve the greatness of those in the 1990s, it would be wise to hold off on the bust word for a while.
The injury list for the US Open is growing by the day, so it is going to be a very interesting tournament. The only top male player not on the list is Roger Federer.
Novak Djokovic – Shoulder and general fatigue. Has had some issues with patella tendinitis this season
Rafael Nadal – Large burn blisters on fingers and left foot
Andy Murray – Sore arm
Mardy Fish – Heel
Tomas Berdych – Shoulder
Robin Soderling – Wrist – he has announced he will travel to NYC
Jo Wilfried Tsonga – Arm. Ultrasound showed no muscle tear after he withdrew in Montreal.
Andy Roddick – Recently pulled out of Montreal with an oblique but played in Cincinnati.
Milos Raonic – Recovering from hip surgery
David Ferrer – Recovering from hairline fracture in left hand
Tommy Robredo – Withdrawn – Ongoing groin issues
Sam Querrey – Withdrawn – Recovering from elbow surgery (spurs)
Juan Carlos Ferrero – Recovering from multiple injuries
Mardy Fish is having yet another strong tournament in the USA with a win over Stanislas Wawrinka in the quarterfinals of the Rogers Cup. Fish won 6-3 6-7 6-0.
Radek Stepanek has performed amazingly well and has found a way to win the ATP Tour title in Washington.
Stepanek was a little lucky as Mardy Fish had to withdraw from the tournament, but he had a string of very solid wins, including the final where he beat Gael Monfils 6-4 6-4 to take the title.
This is Stepanek’s fifth title and his first ATP 500 win. At 32, he is the oldest player in the top 100.
Who would have expected that. Ernests Gulbis win the Los Angeles title by defeating Mardy Fish in the final. Ernests won 5-7 6-4 6-4.
Before the tournament began Ernests had been on a big losing streak and at this tournament he decided to bring back his part-time coach Guillermo Canas and now look at the results!
Congrats Ernests! Hopefully you can finally live up to your potential!
Mardy Fish has been able to win the Atlanta Tennis Championships after saving two match points. Mardy won 3-6 7-6 6-2 to take the title.
Fish was down 5-1 in the tiebreaker and saved two match points to come back and win the title in three sets.
“When you’re in that position, it’s almost over,” Fish said. “I was lucky to get out of it. I played some good points. I don’t think he missed any first serves there. I stuck some returns and put some balls in play.”
“I didn’t necessarily change anything tactically,” Fish said. “I took care of my serve games a little bit better once I lost serve in the first game of the second.”
Matthew Ebden of Australia won his second straight doubles title, teaming this week with Alex Bogomolov Jr., in a 3-6, 7-5, 10-8 super-tiebreaker victory over Matthias Bachinger and Frank Moser of Germany.
