Mardy Fish hopes for a berth in the final – Tennis News
World number eight, Mardy Fish of the United States, is very hopeful of reaching the final of the circuit ending grand finale, the Barclays ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour Finals. The American has made it to
the prestigious field of the season ending tournament for the first time and is coming out of injuries to play the mega event, which starts from 20th of this month at the O2 Arena in London.
The Groups and order of play has been announced for Tour Finals and Fish has been put in Group B, along with the two former world number one players, Rafael Nadal of Spain and Roger Federer of Switzerland, and the sixth ranked
Frenchman, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Whereas, Group A has the reigning world number one, Novak Djokovic, third ranked Briton, Andy Murray, Spain’s David Ferrer and Tomas Berdych from Czech Republic.
In order to qualify for the semi-final rounds, each contestant has to play against three other Round Robin opponents. Fish will have to win at least two of his three Round Robin matches to have a chance for the final four, which
means he must take down either Federer or Nadal in his early encounters. The American believes that since he is a debutant to the mega event, he is under “zero pressure” to face the best players in the business.
“I’m sort of taking the approach of being excited to be a part of this thing," said the American. "Obviously, there are no ‘gimmes’. Roger’s won the tournament five times; he’s won more times than I can even imagine getting in.
So there’s zero pressure playing anyone. There are good match-ups around the board for some guys. Some of these top guys you play better than others. I’ve had good results against Top 10 players, so it’s not out of the realm of possibilities to get to the
semis and beyond for me.”
Fish had the best season of his career this year to book a berth among the elite eight-man grand finale. He extended his championship title count to six by winning the Atlanta Tennis Championships this year and was the finalist
at Rogers Cup and the Farmers Classic, whereas finished semi-finalist at the Wimbledon Championships. He will take on the second seed Nadal in his opening match of the ATP World Tour Finals on Monday night. Nadal leads 7-1 against the American in singles encounters
and is yet to win the prestigious trophy at the O2 Arena.
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