Mardy Fish

• Date of birth:  December 9, 1981
• Birthplace: Edina, MN
• Residence: Tampa, FL
• Height:  1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)
• Weight:  81 kg (180 lb)
• Plays:  Right-handed; two-handed backhand
• Turned Pro: 2000

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Mardin Fish (born December 9, 1981 in Edina, Minnesota) is an American professional tennis player. He is one of several young American tennis players who rose to prominence at the beginning of the 21st century. He is currently ranked #40 in the world.

Early life

Fish is the son of a tennis teaching professional and a housewife, Tom and Sally Fish. Mardy earned his first taste of fame in 1984 when, at the age of two, a Minneapolis, Minnesota TV station ran a profile of the young athlete hitting tennis balls from the baseline over the net. In 1985, Fish's family moved to Vero Beach, Florida, where Mardy attended Vero Beach High School for three years. Fish then moved to Boca Prep in Boca Raton, Florida for his senior year of high school. During that year, he lived with the family of Andy Roddick, where the two young promising players raced their cars to school. Fish returned to Vero Beach in 2000; he spends part of the year training at Saddlebrook Academy in Tampa, Florida. In November of 2007, Mardy became engaged to Stacey Gardner, a California attorney and a "Briefcase Model" on NBC's Deal or No Deal

Tennis career

Fish turned professional in 2000 at the age of 18. He spent his first few years as a pro playing in the Challenger and Futures circuits, the minor leagues of tennis. He earned his first title on the ATP Tour, tennis' premier professional circuit, in 2002 playing doubles in the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships in Houston, Texas, with Andy Roddick.

Fish's career improved significantly in 2003, when he won his first ATP singles title and finished the year ranked 20th in the world. His singles victory came near the end of the season, where he defeated Swedish player Robin Soderling to win the Stockholm Open in Stockholm, Sweden. In addition, he defeated 5th-seeded and former World Number One Carlos Moya at the 2003 Australian Open in the second round, 3–6, 7–6 (8), 6–4, 4–6, 6–2.

Fish played well in 2004, reaching the finals at the SAP Open in San Jose, California and in the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany.

In August, Fish obtained a silver medal for the United States when he lost to Chilean Nicolás Massú in the men's singles final at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

In 2005, Fish injured his left wrist. It eventually required two surgeries, and as a result he only played 17 matches in the year.

2006

US Men's Claycourt Championships

Fish was awarded a wildcard in April into the US Men's Claycourt Championships. He won the tournament, defeating eighth seed Juan Monaco, Rainer Schüttler, Vince Spadea, Tommy Haas, and Jürgen Melzer in the final 3–6 6–4 6–3.

Wimbledon

At the 2006 Championships at Wimbledon, Fish signaled his return to professional status as he reached the third round, defeating fellow American Robby Ginepri, and Dutch player Melle Van Gemerden. The night prior to his third round match, he suffered from food poisioning. He could only play one set before retiring against Georgian Irakli Labadze.

2007

Fish started off 2007 quite well in the Australian Open by making a run through the first four rounds, and playing his old roommate and doubles partner, Andy Roddick, in the quarterfinals. Fish made waves on Day 1 of the tournament by knocking off Ivan Ljubicic, the fourth seed, and had an easy win in the third round when his opponent Wayne Arthurs retired in the opening set. Fish had few problems in his first four matches, but lost in straight sets to Roddick in the quarterfinals. However, he moved by 17 places up the ATP ranking, due to the quarterfinal.

2008

Fish started off 2008 quite well at the Hopman Cup in Perth, Australia. Partnering Serena Williams, Fish, won the title. Williams was ill and arrived after the start of the event, but Meghann Shaughnessy filled in for the first match against the Indian team. Fish won against Indian, Rohan Bopanna and Australian, Peter Luczak, and received a walkover from Czech Tomas Berdych. Although Fish lost the first doubles match to the Indians with Shaughnessy, he and Williams were undefeated in 2 mixed doubles matches. They qualified undefeated for the final where they faced the top-seeded Serbians, Novak ?okovi? and Jelena Jankovi?. Although Fish lost in singles against ?okovi?, the Americans again won the mixed doubles match to win the title.

Fish fell to Jarkko Nieminen in the third round of the Australian Open after a code violation caused him to lose his composure. Chair umpire Damian Steiner of Argentina believed Fish attempted to hit a linesman with a ball early in the third set. While Fish attempted to downplay the incident afterwards, he reacted to the violation by berating the chair umpire and was clearly frustrated while only winning three more games during the rest of the match.

Fish then went on to make a quarterfinal showing at the 2008 Delray Beach International Tennis Championships before losing to long time friend and wild-card entry Robby Ginepri.

At the 2008 Pacific Life Open, Fish started well by defeating Florian Mayer 7–5, 6–4, before defeating thirty-first seed Igor Andreev 6–3, 6–4 in the second round, fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko 6–3, 6–2 in the third round, former world number one and twenty-fourth seed Lleyton Hewitt 7–5, 4–6, 7–6 (4) in the fourth round, and seventh seed David Nalbandian 6–3, 6–7 (5), 7–6 (4) in the quarterfinals. He then stunned World No. 1 Roger Federer in the semifinals 6–3, 6–2 in what Fish claimed was his best win ever after failing to beat the Swiss maestro in 5 previous attempts.

Fish then lost his next match at the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida to Arnaud Clément 6–3, 6–3.

At the French Open, Fish lost in the second round to 25th-seeded Hewitt 6–4, 6–3, 6–2, with Fish committing 58 unforced errors compared to Hewitt's 12.

At Wimbledon, Fish lost in the first round to eighth-seeded Richard Gasquet of France 6–3, 6–4, 6–2. Fish hit 33 winners and 18 unforced errors while Gasquet hit 45 winners and 14 unforced errors. Fish failed to convert his one opportunity to break Gasquet's serve while Gasquet converted four of his six break chances.

At the US Open Fish triumphed in straight sets over one of his best friends on tour James Blake 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4). Fish hit 16 aces and had 28 unforced errors. Fish would reach the quarter finals where he lost to Rafael Nadal of Spain 6-3, 1-6, 4-6, 2-6.

source:  Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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