Mardy Fish Saves USA From Relegation
Mardy Fish Keeps USA in the World Group
Mardy Fish had to struggle and sweat a lot in order to beat Santiago Giraldo. Thus, he needed five sets to keep the United States in the World Group of the Davis Cup. Fish defeated the Colombian 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 4-6, 8-6 to give hope for the next season. The Americans lead now 3-1 as one more game is scheduled to be played. It’s been also 15 years since Pete Sampras was the last American to win three times in a tie. Now it was Fish to provide the same performance in Bogota. Once with the loss, Colombia remains outside the World Group they were never qualified.
Fish won in Friday’s singles and doubled up with John Isner to win the pairs on Saturday. “To win three points in one Davis Cup match under these circumstance in such an important tie is one of the biggest—if not the biggest— accomplishment of my career,” Fish would say after the qualifying. The victory was captain’s Patrick McEnroe last as he won’t coach the team anymore. He made the announcement days ago when claimed that it is time for him to go and stay with the family. USA ousted Colombia despite being stripped of powerful Andy Roddick and James Blake, who also revealed that he would soon consider retirement. “What a Herculean effort from Mardy this weekend. Mardy’s was one of the greatest efforts in Davis cup history—forget my 10 years as captain. To win three points in these conditions—with the altitude, the crowd and everything. He is in illustrious company,” captain McEnroe said. It was a breathtaking game between Fish and Giraldo. The Colombian led the fifth set 6-5 before the American would come from behind to level the score at 6 and finally to take the win with a break point, too.
This last for 4 hours, but probably the best captain McEnroe lived as team leader. “I couldn’t have asked for a better way to end my captaincy,” he would declare after the long game. Fish seemed a bit exhausted realizing that he played three days in a row for over 11 hours. But still, his resistance helped him deliver 14 aces, but committing 11 double faults. “A lot of work and a lot of sacrifice went into this. A year ago today I wouldn’t have been able to do this. I fought as hard as I could. He passed me 100 times today and I kept coming,” the player said. Unlike McEnroe, Fish praised Colombians’ effort, these struggling every second in order to obtain their first qualification in the World Group.
“It was as tough a relegation match as we could have had with the altitude, the balls and a quality opponent,” Fish said, after facing the high altitude tennis. Ryan Harrison was set to make his debut for the US team in the last game. This becomes interesting once Andy Roddick made his debut for the Davis Cup in McEnroe’s first match as captain. Now, Harison made his debut as McEnroe leaves the team. However, no player leaves though, but a new captain is expected to be named. The current team seems to give Fish the confidence of being able to play on at the highest level in the Davis Cup. “I think we have a lot of guys who can play well on a lot of surfaces— myself, John, Sam Querrey, Andy, James and the Bryans. We wish we had six or eight spots to take everyone each tie,” Fish, who won this season two ATP tiles in Newport and Atlanta, ended.
