No. 1 American man Mardy Fish looks to cap big summer | The Republic - The Republic

Without a doubt, Mardy Fish is having the best year of his career and, for the first time, the 29-year-old arrives in New York with a legitimate shot at winning a Grand Slam title.

Fish also will be the top-ranked American man at the U.S. Open, which starts Monday (or after Hurricane Irene blows through) and runs through Sept. 11 in Flushing. N.Y.

Fish has played well all year, but he's been at his best this summer, having won the U.S. Open Series title, putting him in line for the additional $1 million bonus if he can win the U.S. Open. He is seeded eighth and will play Tobias Kamke of Germany in the first round.

Fish's summer hard-court season began for all intents and purposes in July in Austin, where he lost two hard-fought Davis Cup matches. Despite the losses, his gutsy showing was evidence of things to come.

He won in Atlanta, and followed that up by reaching the final in Los Angeles and at the Masters Series event in Montreal, where he pushed top-ranked Novak Djokovic to three sets. Last week in Cincinnati, Fish lost to No. 4-ranked Andy Murray in the semifinals, but that came a day after a 6-3, 6-4 victory over No. 2-ranked Rafael Nadal.

"Yeah, it's been a good year," Fish said during a recent conference call. "It's been a pretty consistent year for me, basically starting in Memphis (in February) when I started feeling better from a thyroid condition that I had. I was feeling pretty (bad) in Australia and wasn't really sure why."

Even before that, however, Fish began to make several changes that set the tone for this year.

"I think it started with the weight loss," said Fish, who is down to 180 pounds on his 6-foot-2 frame. "It started with changing my discipline and changing my outlook on the game and how I took it from a week-to-week basis and a month-to-month basis.

"I changed the reason why I played. You know, I found a better reason to enjoy being on the court and enjoy being on the practice court. But it all kind of started from weight loss and the discipline that it took to do that."

Soon after getting into shape, both physically and mentally, Fish's results started to improve.

"Then the confidence just comes, you know," he said. "You hope it's not arrogance. You hope it's just confidence on the court. That comes from winning."

The success boosted Fish into the top 10 for the first time in his career, and as a result, he's taken the mantle of "Top American Man" away from Andy Roddick. It's a label Fish is still not quite comfortable with.

"I've gone under the radar pretty comfortably," Fish said. "(I) haven't had to answer to too many critics. So with being the No. 1 American comes a little bit of extra pressure, but it's good pressure. It's certainly a position you want to be in."

ESPN commentator and former U.S. Open champion John McEnroe believes Fish is playing well enough to make a serious run at the title.

"Mardy's obviously playing the best tennis of his career," McEnroe said. "He's in as good a position as he could possibly be in. He's maxing out at least, which is good to see. He's fulfilling all the potential that people talked about."

McEnroe's brother, Patrick, agrees: "Mardy's put himself in position where you can talk about him as a guy that could make a huge run in a major.

"I think he's at least in that conversation now as a guy, if he gets a couple of breaks, he's prepared to take advantage of an opportunity."

American hopes

After Mardy Fish, no other American, including Andy Roddick or 19-year-old Ryan Harrison, appears ready to be a contender.

"The other guys are more unknowns," John McEnroe explained. "Ryan Harrison, to me, has always been a guy that you know he's going to be a top-10, top-15 player, but can he get to the top elite game? That remains to be seen."

McEnroe sees John Isner as the only other American man able to make an impact, if he makes some changes in his game.

"I'd like to see (Isner) take more chances and not allow guys to get in a rhythm," McEnroe said. "To me, he gets stuck in too many rallies, and that's making it difficult for him now that he's sort of taken a step back from when he was at his high (ranking) of 18 or 19."

As for Roddick, Patrick McEnroe hasn't been terribly impressed.

"Roddick is the big question right now with his lack of match play," Patrick McEnroe said. "For me, he's still playing a little bit too defensively. I'd like to see him try to step in and cut the court off a little bit more and come forward a little bit more. But he's pretty stubborn, which is part of the reason he's had a lot of success, but it could be getting in his way a little bit now."

Texas tested

Almost to a player, everyone who participated in the inaugural Texas Tennis Open last week in Grapevine said they believe that playing in the Texas heat will help when they arrive in New York. Wishful thinking or is there something to it? It will be interesting to follow the progress of Texas winner Sabine Lisicki, runner-up Aravane Rezai and the rest as they make their way through the Open. Six players in the Texas field are among the U.S. Open seeds: Dominika Cibulkova is No. 14, followed by Julia Goerges at No. 19, Yanina Wickmayer at 20, Sabine Lisicki at 22, Shahar Peer at 23 and Jarmila Gajdosova at 29.

Serena's ready

Just before Wimbledon, Serena Williams returned from almost a year-long absence from the WTA Tour because of injury and illness. But for the U.S. Open, Williams comes in better prepared than at any recent major championship. She played three tune-up events, winning titles in Stanford, Calif., and in Toronto, before pulling out in the second round in Cincinnati with a toe injury. Or was it to attend Kim Kardashian's wedding? Whatever the reason, Serena did enough during this summer to win the U.S. Open Series, giving her a chance to leave Flushing Meadows with a $1 million bonus if she can win her 14th major and her fourth U.S. Open title.

"We saw (Serena) at Wimbledon, and I think even though she lost a close match to (Marion) Bartoli, Bartoli played out of her head," ESPN commentator Chris Evert said. "I think that exceeded people's expectations, that Serena would do that well at Wimbledon after being out for a year and all her health issues. She committed herself. She practiced. She's won two tournaments. That's unbelievable. It's incredible. Not to undermine the rest of the field, but it just shows that she's head and shoulders above anybody else, again, when she's healthy."

Wide-open field

While there is a short list of contenders for the men's title, the same is not true for the women's field. Outside of Serena Williams, the field appears wide open. Even those in the field think just bout anyone could step up and win it all.

"Women's tennis, I mean, everyone is playing so well now," said U.S. Open semifinalist Melanie Oudin, whose 2009 run was the surprise of the tournament. "I mean Petra Kvitova won Wimbledon. No one saw that coming, because she had never won (a Grand Slam event) before. I really think there's not a favorite outside of Serena Williams. I think she's a huge threat, but just everybody, everybody's playing well. There are so many people that could take it. It's just who gets on a roll during those two weeks."

And Oudin knows something about getting on a roll.

28 Aug, 2011

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