Fish Moves On In Atlanta
Mardy Fish continued his hot streak, cruising to victory in the opening round of the Atlanta Tennis Championship. Fish retired Great Britain’s James Ward in straight sets going 6-1, 6-2 for the victory.
Mardy Fish
Fish joined the ATP tour in 2002 earning his first ever title, winning men’s doubles on clay courts in Houston with Andy Roddick.
Fish’s big break came in 2003 when he won his first ATP Tour tournament at the Swedish Open, and went to the finals at Cincinnati. He continued his strong play competing well at the Australian Open that season, and finishing 20th in the world rankings.
He continued his strong play through 2004, reaching the final of SAP Open in San Jose, and the Gerry Weber Open in Germany. Fish caped off the year however, with a silver medal in men’s singles at the Athens Olympics.
Fish suffered a wrist injury in 2005 which kept him out for most of the season. He was able to come back in 2006, and started off by winning the American Men’s Clay Court Championship, which he followed up by reaching the third round of Wimbledon.
In 2007 Fish continued to improve, posting his best result at a grand slam, making it into the fourth round of the Australian Open, before he was beaten by fellow countryman Andy Roddick. The play helped to move him up 17 spots in the rankings.
The 2008 and 2009 seasons Fish could only manage a couple quarter final appearances in most of the years' more important tournaments.
Atlanta Championship Tennis
The event in Atlanta is the first one held since 2001, and is the first tournament in North America this summer to take place on a hard court. The field features mostly Americans and Fish heads into the competition ranked sixth.
In order to prepare for the tournament Fish has been working a great deal on his serve. The speed of the hard court makes it important to have a powerful first attack, something the American has been unable to put together in recent seasons. The training appeared to pay off against Ward, Fish won 21 of the possible 25 points on his first service, and split the second serve totals at 28. The training has done a great deal to help Fish at the line this season. He is currently winning 80% of his first serves, which places him second on the ATP tour.
Right now Fish is on a roll, having won last week's grass court tournament in Newport for the Hall of Fame Tennis Tournament. He fared well on grass wining 12 of his last 14, and taking home the fourth tournament victory of his career. The strong play last week seems to have set him up well for this week in Atlanta.
Fish had this to say of his performance thus far this season, as well as the upcoming hard court tournaments: “I want to keep the momentum going for sure…It’s a new surface and that’s important even though I have had a successful grass court season for the most part. It’s all hard courts from here on. Confidence is a huge part of tennis. I feel extremely confident right now.”
Fish rarely takes a week off and has played in 35 matches already this season, and is slotted to appear pretty much every week, up to and including the US Open.
Fish is joined in Atlanta by fellow American stalwarts Roddick, and John Isner. The three men will be looking to capture the title for the hometown fans.
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