RICKY DIMON REPORTS ON THE MARDY FISH COMEBACK WHICH BEGINS ON THURSDAY IN INDIAN WELLS TENNIS VS. RYAN HARRISON

Written by: Staff on 12th March 2015

RICKY DIMON REPORTS ON THE MARDY FISH COMEBACK WHICH BEGINS ON THURSDAY IN INDIAN WELLS TENNIS VS. RYAN HARRISON |

Mardy Fish is back.

For the first time since the summer of 2013, Fish will play a singles match when he takes the court at the BNP Paribas Open on Thursday afternoon. Prior to a Dallas Challenger doubles appearance in February, the American last appeared two years ago in Winston-Salem.

Mardy Fish of the US tosses the ball for a serve against Gilles Simon of France during their match on the sixth day of the 2012 US Open Tennis Championship at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 01 September 2012. The US Open runs through 09 September 2012. EPA/JOHN G. MABANGLO

What began as an apparent heart scare at the 2012 U.S. Open morphed into anxiety disorder and it sidelined the former world No. 7 for all of 2014. But now the 33-year-old is finally ready to return, and he will do so at an event where he finished runner-up to Novak Djokovic in 2008.

“I want to get my life back, and this is the next step in doing that,” Fish said of his comeback. “It’s educating the mental illness community and the people who have gone through anxiety or panic disorders or depression. It’s very important for me to tell people who are going through this that I am, too. And hopefully they can relate to me and see a success story.”

Simply playing a competitive tennis match will be a success story on Thursday. As for winning, that will be a tough test against in-form countryman Ryan Harrison.

Fish leads the head-to-head series 3-0, but all three of their previous meetings came in 2011. Fast forward to 2015 and Harrison has already won a Challenger title this season and he reached the Acapulco semifinals as a qualifier. It’s hard to know what to expect from Fish; the only guarantee is that this will be the marquee matchup of the day for fans at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

The night session, meanwhile, will feature Marcos Baghdatis and Jiri Vesely. Both of their previous tilts went Baghdatis’ way in 2014; 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 in Delray Beach and 6-4, 7-5 at the Geneva Challenger.

The 29-year-old Cypriot recently talked a big game about his possible resurgence and so far he is backing it up. Baghdatis is 6-3 at the ATP level this season with a third-round performance at the Australian Open and a semifinal appearance in Zagreb. He also reached the Happy Valley Challenger final before succumbing to Harrison.

Vesely fared relatively well in his first trip to the desert in 2014. He beat Igor Sijsling and Pablo Andujar then had Andy Murray on the ropes in round three only to collapse en route to a 6-7(2), 6-4, 6-4 loss. The 21-year-old Czech started 2015 on fire with a title in Auckland, but he has since lost five matches in a row.

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand.

Topics: BNP Paribas Open, Indian Wells Tennis Garden, Jiri Vesely, Marcos Baghdatis, Mardy Fish, Ricky Dimon, Ryan Harrison, Sports, Tennis News

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10sBalls_com says:

March 12, 2015 at 8:09 am

@Dimonator REPORTS ON THE @MardyFish COMEBACK WHICH BEGINS ON THURSDAY IN #IndianWellstennis VS. @ryanharrison92- http://t.co/ekr1SSjsfP
Dimonator says:

March 12, 2015 at 8:21 am

RT @10sBalls_com: @Dimonator REPORTS ON THE @MardyFish COMEBACK WHICH BEGINS ON THURSDAY IN #IndianWellstennis VS. @ryanharrison92- http://…