Mardy Fish’s Return to the Tour

Written by: Staff on 10th March 2013

Mardy Fish's Return to the Tour

epa03379608 Mardy Fish of the US volleys 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 |

Indian Wells, CA – American Mardy Fish, former top 10 player and Davis Cup member, returned to the professional ATP tour today in his first singles match since retiring out of the U.S. Open against Federer. Struggling during the off-season with a heart issue that kept him out of play, the American admitted to almost hanging up his rackets. But slowly and surely he worked himself back into shape on the courts at UCLA and made the 2013 BNP Paribas Open his first tournament.

Greeted warmly upon arrival, Fish faced qualifier Bobby Reynolds. It was a tricky match for Fish because Reynolds had fought his way through the qualifying and was primed and ready to handle the conditions here in the desert. Fish didn’t show too many signs of rust but eventually found himself sucking wind and down a break in the third.

These tense times ignited some kind of fire inside of Fish because he reeled off four games in a row to win the match and had, excuse the phrase, heart-felt embrace with his friend Reynolds. Fish admits even he was surprised when this feeling came over him, “Then all of a sudden you find yourself in the third set, deep in the third set losing. Some of that sort of fight starts kicking in and you want to win.”

Everyone on tour is pretty happy to see Fish back on tour with numerous Twitter messages from peers showing support and well wishes. Maybe Fish can make a remarkable comeback this year and finish inside the top 20 and become the #1 American again. That will be a large undertaking because Fish does not yet know if he’ll play the clay season. He says he’ll look to make that decision after Miami.

©Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: American tennis news, ATP tennis news, BNP Paribas tennis tournament, Indian Wells Tennis News, Mardy Fish, Roger Federer, US Open