Mardy Fish ousts Rafael Nadal in the ultimate shocker – Western & Southern Open 2011
The crowd at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, near Cincinnati, United States, was in for a huge surprise to see the former world number one, Rafael Nadal of Spain, to crash out of the competition at the hands of seventh
ranked American contestant, Mardy Fish, in the quarter-finals of Western and Southern Financial Group Masters on Friday afternoon.
Seeded at number seven in the tournament, Fish stunned everyone to outplay the world number two in the most convincing manner, wrapping up victory in straight sets 6-3, 6-4, to make it to the semi-final of the ATP (Association
of Tennis Professionals) Masters Series. The second seeded Spaniard exhibited his blasting form to record a huge upset in the tournament, disposing of Nadal in one hour and forty minutes of play.
The American fired 12 cracking aces and pocketed 27 out of 33 first serve points en route to victory, while Nadal secured 30 out of his 47 points to finish on the losing end. Fish finally broke the six-match losing streak against
Nadal and his serve remained unbroken in the matchup. The seventh seed has not dropped serve 29 games this week made his fiery serve his primary weapon of destruction in the Friday’s contest.
“I played a couple nervous points, but I was pretty happy with the way I executed,” Fish said after defeating the second seeded Spaniard. “That first point or two in the last game was huge. I got a little lucky. [I’ve been] taking
advantage of the opportunities, making a lot first serves in key moments, not giving away many free points. Look, those three guys [I’ve played] return extremely well, so if I don’t lose serve, I am usually pretty successful.”
Fish held serve in all of his games and nailed two vital serve breaks out of four opportunities to close out victory. He broke Nadal in the fourth game of the opener and then again in the fifth game of the following set to dispose
the second seed. A total of 125 points were played in the entire matchup, with Fish bagging 71 out of them and his opponent lagging far behind with 54 points.
Fish will take on the world number four, Andy Murray of Great Britain, in the semi-final clash of Cincinnati Masters. The Briton was successful against the 10th seed Gilles Simon of France in straight sets 6-3, 6-3,
in the quarter-final draws.
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