Fish slips the hook

Written by: Staff on 31st August 2010

Fish slips the hook |

That’s it. We’ve cracked it. If you want to beat Mardy Fish – and many have tried but few have succeeded this summer – just wave a slice of pizza under his nose. That ought to do it.

The remarkable Mr Fish had almost had his chips (the old gags are always the best) on Day Two in the blistering heat of Flushing Meadows when he turned things around and beat Jan Hajek 6-0, 3-6, 4-6, 6-0, 6-1. On a day when the spectators were melting in the heat and the press room electrics blew a gasket (we could have air con but limited lighting or lights but duff air con), it was not wise to be spending so long on court, surely. Not a bit of it. Our Mardy was having a blast.

This year, he has lost 30lbs, got fit and learned how to win. And win lots. So far this summer he has won the titles in Newport and Atlanta and reached the final in Cincinnati. Oh, and he has beaten Andy Murray three times this season. Things are looking up, then, for Fish. As for facing temperatures that were approaching 100 degrees in New York – that was easy.

“This is probably the hottest it’s going to be here,” Fish said. “From what we went through this summer in Atlanta, I can’t tell you, it’s not even close. It’s 50 degrees less, I’m telling you, and no humidity, so it just feels nice. It just feels kind of hot.”

The lifestyle change and the new svelte look took a good deal of hard work but now that he is lean and learning about the wonders of healthy living, he is loving it.

“I had my knee surgery because I was too heavy,” Fish explained. “That was why my knees were hurting. Both knees were hurting. I mean, one needed repair and the other one was just sore all the time. I was just too heavy, flat out too heavy. So that’s why I did it.

“I feel healthy. To be honest, a lot of it has to do with just sort of walking around, walking around the locker room, walking around and just sort of feeling confident. A lot of it’s mental. I want to set a precedent to the guys that I can play in the hottest stuff out here and outlast as many people as I can. So I want to sort of at least try to put some sort of myth out there that that I can last as long as anyone.”

He certainly looked as fit as flea as he skipped off court as the winner. Compared to Novak Djokovic who huffed and puffed and sweated and strained for 3hours 40minutes to beat Viktor Troicki 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3, he was absolutely fine. Djokovic looked like he was about to expire but, then again, so did Troicki. Philipp Petzschner, who is waiting for Djoko in the next round and who whistled past Dusan Lojda in straight sets, must be licking his lips at the prospect of that one.

Looking back at his former, unhealthy self, Fish can hardly believe it. Not even Mrs Fish – or Stacey to her friends – had the nerve to tell her hubby that maybe he was just a little, well, chubby.

“I look at Stacey sometimes and say, What was your problem?” he said. “Why didn’t somebody tell me that I looked like that?”

Now up to No.21 in the rankings (his career high is 17 but that was back in 2004), Fish is looking towards a spot in the top 10 by this time next year. That will depend upon him staying fit and injury free – and staying away from those pizzas.

As well as working harder – and working smarter – Fish has also been learning the facts of life about sensible eating. And sometimes, that has hurt.

“Lots of stuff was hard,” he said. “I saw a Domino’s Pizza commercial the other day that looked pretty good. That looked really good. It wasn’t necessarily just what I ate, but when I ate them and times that I ate them, and, you know, days of matches and nights before matches and things like that. I miss a lot of the stuff.

“I just wouldn’t make the right choices as far as what I was eating, and a lot of it was that I wasn’t educated enough on some of the good things that I needed to do.”

So if Pablo Cuevas is looking for a tip before he plays Fish on Thursday, 10sballs.com has a suggestion. Grab a huge slice of pizza and leave it by Fish’s locker. It might just do the trick but, then again, the slimline Mr F is so loving the whole business of winning that not even Domino’s best pepperoni is likely to tempt him from the straight and extremely narrow.

Topics: Andy Murray, Blistering Heat, Both Knees, Chips, Cincinnati, Electrics, Fish Hook, Gags, Gasket, Hajek, Having A Blast, Humidity, Knee Surgery, Lifestyle Change, Locker Room, Mardy Fish, Newport, Slice Of Pizza, Spectators, Three Times