Mardy Fish overcomes Nicolas Almagro to join the last-eight – Sony Ericsson Open 2012
American number one, Mardy Fish, defeated Nicolas Almagro of Spain in three sets, 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-3, in the round of 16 at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami on Tuesday.
Fish maintained his unbeaten record against 12th seed, Almagro, and improved the head to head series to 3-0 against the Spaniard.
The American was the first to take lead, grabbing a break of serve in the fourth game of the opener and capitalising on it to go up 4-1. Fish, who was under extreme pressure on his opening serve, allowed Almagro to win just a couple
of points in the next three and clinched the first set 6-3.
Fish was looking to seal the match quickly, as he secured first two games to take a 2-0 lead in the second set. However, Almagro struck back to even out the score at 4-4 and went neck to neck with the American in the rest of the
set to force a tie-breaker. The Spaniard won five consecutive points to close it 7-6(2).
In the decider, Fish faced a number of break threats in his first three serve games but avoided all of them to take the score to 3-3. The American was almost flawless after that, winning three games in a row to triumph 6-3.
Fish and Almagro hit a high number of aces, bombarding 16 and 14 respectively. The American had a stunning first serve conversion rate, winning 51 of the 53 points on them. The match lasted for two hours and 35 minutes.
The Los Angeles, California resident shared that he likes to play in the afternoon heat. He said, “Physically, I felt great; that’s the kind of conditions I love playing in. That’s why I request to play during the day all the time.
I feel like I can manage the heat as good as anyone.”
The top American’s match was shifted to the grandstand for the third straight time but he didn’t mind that. Fish said about this, "I certainly want to play on stadium court. But they've got to put someone out on the grandstand,
and who's that going to be? Are you going to put Federer out there, or Djokovic, or Nadal, or Serena? I'm not going to go ahead of those guys as far as people coming to watch them play. You've got to go where you've got to go."
Fish is slated to face 21st seed, Juan Monaco, in the quarterfinals. Monaco ousted Fish’s close friend, Andy Roddick, in the fourth round.
Tags: