At an Open Full of Young Talent, Fish Survives

This has been the U.S. Open of young men, a display of talented, powerful, and mostly towering teenagers. There’s 19-year-old Juan Martin Del Potro, the 6-foot-5-inch Argentine who flattens tennis balls with his forehand. There’s 19-year-old Marin Cilic, the 6-foot-5-inch Croat who gave Novak Djokovic all he could handle Sunday evening. There’s Gael Monfils, the 6-foot-4-inch Frenchman, age 22, whose long limbs, lightning quickness, and acrobatic moves have never been seen before on a tennis court. There’s Kei Nishikori, the tiny one of the bunch, but also the youngest, at 18, and the wisest in terms of tactics.Then there’s Mardy Fish. At age 26, he’s fast approaching senior status for a tennis pro. His game, a mixture of serves and volleys, chips and charges, forehand slice approaches, and the occasional powerful ground stroke, is ancient. How old-school is Fish? He wears a headband, an article of clothing not seen on a professional tennis player (other than Jonas Bjorkman) in the last five or six years or more.At the U.S. Open this year, though, old is working just as well, if not better, than new. Yesterday, Fish didn’t just beat the talented Monfils on Monfils’s birthday, he wrecked him, 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 in the fourth round. The match lasted two hours and ended with Fish winning a place in a major quarterfinal for the second time in his career and for the first time at the U.S. Open, where he had never gone beyond the second round.“I’ve always wanted to do well here,” Fish said. “I was desperate to do well.”Though the match between Fish and Monfils might be seen as proof that the tennis tactics of yore can work against a field dominated by players who hug the baseline and hit heavy topspin, it was just as much a lesson in discipline.Fish knows his strengths, and, more important, his limitations. A few years ago, he scrapped his forehand and rebuilt it from scratch, a decision that is almost unheard-of for a top professional. It’s more powerful now. No one would accuse Fish of being fast, but he knows how to cut off angles and attack the ball early in rallies, rather than waiting for it to come to him. He hits a backhand, his best stroke, whenever it’s available, and serves hard and flat as often as possible. Fish has spent years wheedling away the unnecessary elements of his style to give himself the best chance in a field of harder hitters, better athletes, and younger men.“Against most guys these days I’m going to try to keep the points as short as possible,” Fish said. “I think I volley better than I hit my forehand, so I might as well try to do that.”Monfils has many more tools than Fish: speed, agility, and a forehand that can travel upward of 100 mph. Unfortunately, despite the urging of several coaches for the last three years, Monfils remains one of the least-disciplined players in the sport. Monfils went tumbling to the court at least three times yesterday. With each slide he left skid marks, some as long as 2 or 3 feet. He bent his body into positions that no sane athlete, and no man concerned about his health or the length of his career, would even contemplate. The more Fish attacked and annoyed Monfils, the farther Monfils retreated behind the baseline, a decision that gave Fish more time, and more room, to execute his strategy.Monfils, it is clear, loves to play tennis — he is a joyful and expressive player, one who awes audiences the world over with his shot making and his post-match celebrations. But Monfils plays to entertain, to enthrall, rather than to win. It’s exciting stuff, but, inevitably, it ends long before the tournament does.Fish’s reward for beating the reckless Monfils is a match against the most disciplined man in tennis, Rafael Nadal. Nadal needed every last ounce of concentration yesterday against Sam Querrey, before prevailing 6-2, 5-7, 7-6(2), 6-3.Querrey is another young, tall player — the 6-foot-6-inch American turns 21 next month — whose game closely resembles that of Cilic and Del Potro. (They hit the ball at speeds never seen before.) What Querrey lacks in speed and quickness he compensates for with firepower. After a nervous first set yesterday, he spent much of the afternoon bullying Nadal, who has lost one match since the middle of May.Nadal had reason to show frustration. Querrey’s forehand pushed Nadal backward time and again; Querrey’s serve flew by him 20 times. In the second set, Querrey erased a 5-3 deficit and won the next four games, including a break of serve at love. Late in the fourth set, Querrey earned seven break points in a single game. If this had been Djokovic, rather than Nadal, rackets would have met untimely deaths and screams would have echoed throughout the stadium. Nadal said nothing, did nothing to disclose his concern or his disappointment when he committed a few uncharacteristic errors. Composure is his stock-in-trade.Can Fish beat the world no. 1? He beat Roger Federer at Indian Wells, Calif., earlier this year, and he knows Nadal doesn’t see many players who attack as well as Fish does.“I’m going to come in and I’m going to, you know, not necessarily a kamikaze-type tennis, but I’m going to try to keep the points as short as possible,” Fish said.Two years ago, I would have given Fish a decent chance. But even after a long summer, a lot of travel, and a so-so fourth-round performance, Nadal still seems ready to break new ground at this year’s U.S. Open. One more win and he reaches his first semifinal and moves a step closer to the best summer in tennis since Rod Laver in 1969.Mr. Perrotta is a senior editor at Tennis magazine. He can be reached at tperrotta@tennismagazine.com.

At an Open Full of Young Talent, Fish Survives

At an Open Full of Young Talent, Fish Survives

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