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Fish Finding His Place At His Own Pace
By Douglas Robson
 Is
Mardy Fish ready for the fishbowl of fame?
In the past year, the 22-year-old Tampa resident has emerged
as the second-best player among a fine crop of young, talented
American men. He has notched wins over elite players such
as Andy Roddick, Andre Agassi, Carlos Moya and David Nalbandian.
He has cracked the top 20, reached a Masters Series final,
come within touching distance of an Olympic gold medal and
become a regular Davis Cup team member.
Yet impressive as his results have been, the tanned, pony-tailed
kid with the mellow ’tude of a California surfer has
yet to live up to his prodigious abilities. That gap has been
particularly glaring on the sport’s biggest stages—the
majors—where Fish has never reached the fourth round.
And it’s why the Minnesota native labors, to a large
degree, in the shadow of childhood friend and fellow Floridian,
Roddick.
“Andy has played big time and he deserves it,”
Fish said of Roddick’s celebrity status.
If the two leading men of America’s Generation Next
seem intertwined, there is good reason. Fish and Roddick are
not only Davis Cup and Olympic teammates; they lived together
for a year as teenagers, attended the same high school in
south Florida and turned pro the same year, in 2000.
Fish stayed with Roddick’s family in Boca Raton while
attending Boca Prep—their bedrooms were several feet
apart—and the pals engaged in the usual teenage pursuits:
chasing girls, watching movies and occasionally racing to
school. “The loser paid for lunch,” Fish said,
who piloted a Ford Mustang against Roddick’s Chevy Blazer.
While both agree that Fish is superior on the basketball court,
it is the reigning US Open champion, Roddick, who has shined
brighter on the tennis court in their young careers. Fish
insists he is in no hurry to duplicate the feats of his high
school buddy, who finished 2003 ranked No. 1—the youngest
American in history to do so and the second youngest ever.
“I don’t feel any pressure,” Fish said.
“I want to go at my pace. I don’t want anyone
to say, ‘Why isn’t he in the top 10?’ I
haven’t matured as fast as Andy has physically or mentally.”
In other words, Fish is his own man—in more ways than
one. If Rod-dick is outgoing and almost edgy; Fish is laid
back and more comfortable behind the scenes. While Roddick
has had very public romances, notably with singer-actress
Mandy Moore; Fish has played the bachelor until recently,
when he started dating Ally Browne, a student at the University
of Colorado. And whereas Roddick is bent on living up to the
hype his early promise generated, Fish is progressing at his
own pace.
With a monstrous first serve, quick hands and one of the best
backhands on tour, most observers believe Fish has the best
chance to follow Roddick into the top 10 despite other emerging
American talents such as Taylor Dent, Robby Ginepri and James
Blake. Fish has already risen higher in the rankings than
any of those peers—he hit a career-best No. 17 in March—and
has reached five tournament finals in the last 15 months.
Most notably of late, Fish plowed his way through a draw at
the Athens Olympics that included Roddick, No. 1 Roger Federer
and several other members of the top-10 to snag a silver medal—barely
missing out on the gold after leading two sets to one against
Chile’s Nicolas Massu as Roddick cheered on his friend
from the stands.
“I think the most disappointing thing about it was that
I just really wanted to hear the national anthem,” said
Fish following his five-set loss. “I think that the
Olympics is the biggest thing, and a gold medal is the biggest
prize in sports.”
But that hasn’t silenced critics who contend Fish’s
pace is too lax considering his talents. Indeed, his performances
have fluctuated between brilliant and dreadful. After beating
Spaniard Moya at the 2003 Australian Open—the second
time in two weeks he upended the former French Open champ—Fish
capitulated to Wayne Ferreira in the next round after leading
by two sets. He played brilliantly last summer to reach his
first Masters Series final in Cincinnati and held two match
points against Roddick, but then lost in the second round
of the US Open later that month to the veteran Karol Kucera
of Slovakia.
 This
year has been more of the same. Fish made the final at the
Wimbledon tune-up in Halle, Germany, but slumped out of the
All England Lawn Tennis Club in the second round, losing to
Sweden’s Joachim Johansson. In 11 attempts, Fish has
never been beyond the third round at a Grand Slam, and in
six career finals, he has an unsightly 1–6 record, his
sole win coming at Stock-holm last year. His stellar Olympic
run, too, represented a breakthrough and a chance to do something
Roddick has never done. But again, he fell a tad short when
the finish line was in view. Fish is quick to admit that his
performances lack consistency.
“It’s disappointing,” Fish said dejectedly
following his Wimbledon loss. “I’ll be the first
to tell you: I’ve only made the third round in a couple
of Slams. It sets you back and makes you think, ‘Why
can I do so well at normal tournaments like Halle and then
not do well in the Slams?’ I’d really be asking
myself if I can win a tournament if I hadn’t won Stockholm.”
To be fair, his roller coaster 2004 season has been due in
part to a hip injury that forced Fish to miss Roland Garros
while sitting out six weeks this spring. “The last few
months have been tough because I haven’t really played,”
he said. “I’ve just been on the bad-luck end of
a lot of matches this summer. I felt like hopefully all the
bads would ball up into one big good, hopefully at a big tournament
like the US Open or the Olympics,’’ Fish said.
Yet questions about Fish’s work habits persist. Some
tennis insiders say he has not pushed himself to get into
the kind of shape required to go deep in majors, though no
one seems to question the 6'2" player’s talent.
Fish himself admitted he got tired at the end of his match
against Chilean Nicolas Massu, who had spent a whopping 24
hours, 43 minutes on court during the Games over 11 matches,
including doubles.
“If I could sit down with him and have a serious discussion,
I would tell him that he is one of the top eight most talented
players in the game and that he has not fulfilled that potential,”
said ESPN commentator Cliff Drysdale, who calls himself a
big fan of Fish. “I think he feels maybe that things
are coming pretty easily to him and that he could be satisfied
with second best. But it’s something he’ll regret
if he doesn’t get his act together and give it everything
he’s got.”
That sentiment is echoed by U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick
McEnroe, who has a vested interest in seeing the cadre of
young players he’s cultivating maximize their potential.
“He’s got a lot of weapons with his serve and
his backhand,” McEnroe said, “and now that he’s
shored up his forehand side a little bit, he really doesn’t
have an obvious weakness in his game. Mardy has a lot of raw,
athletic ability. The fitter he gets the more his game will
blossom.”
Fish, for his part, believes the criticism is unfounded. “That’s
unfair,” he said. “I haven’t done anything
differently than I’ve done in the past.”
Whether he can raise his game to Roddick-like standards is
a question that should be answered in the last months of the
season. Fish has been working hard with Kelly Jones, his coach
since 2002, to build up his strength and mental consistency.
Jones, a former pro, recently relocated to Florida to be closer
to his charge. Fish has been be back on his favored hard courts
for the North American stretch leading up to the US Open.
With many points to defend, his performance could be telling
for how far his game has really come.
Then there is Davis Cup. In Septem-ber, the Americans take
on Belarus in Charleston, South Carolina, for a berth in the
finals against France or Spain. Anything but a trip to the
last round would be a major U.S. disappointment.
“It’s going to be exciting,” Fish said of
teaming with Roddick in Davis Cup as well as the Olympics.
Before the Games, where the two played doubles but lost early,
Fish commented, “How many people get to play the Olympics
in their lives? It’ll be fun to play doubles with Andy.
I mean, when we grew up I don’t think we could ever
imagine ourselves playing doubles in the Olympics trying to
win a medal.”
With Davis Cup providing another patriotic shot in the arm
and a chance to play for something bigger than personal glory,
Fish could find himself stealing more of the limelight from
Roddick, as he did in Athens with his Olympic medal.
Silver is not gold, but it might be just the lining Fish needs
to start wearing the mantle of champion on a more consistent
basis.
The fishbowl is ready. Is Mardy?
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