Mardy Fish pulled off a whale of an upset on Saturday, stunning world No. 1 Roger Federer 6-3, 6-2 to reach the final of the ATP Masters Series Pacific Life Open.
Fish, ranked 98th in the world, needed just 63 minutes to roll past the Swiss superstar, who mustered just one break point and couldn't convert it.
The defeat leaves Federer still searching for his first tournament victory of the year, the first time since 2000 that the 12-time Grand Slam champion has gone so far into a season without a title.
PHOTO: AP
Fish next faces Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, who ousted defending champion Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-2.
Fish sent a shiver through the stadium-court crowd with his first break of Federer in the second game. He held for 3-0 and never looked back, taking the opening set in 39 minutes.
"This wasn't, obviously, Roger's best day. But hopefully I had a little something to do with that," Fish said.
"I put the pressure extremely -- from the word go -- on him. It was a dream start to go up 3-0, and have a couple break points there at 3-0. He had a break point against my second serve game when I was 2-0. That was a huge game to get through that," Fish said.
Federer admitted he just couldn't find an answer to Fish's go-for-broke approach.
"He was just trying to go for everything, and it worked," Federer said. "I didn't even play particularly bad on the break points ... Every time he read the right side on the serve, and he kept the ball in play. When he wanted to attack, everything worked."
"That was just impressive by his side, and I couldn't do much to control it. I didn't even think he served particularly well. It was just impossible to return his first serve, which it normally is anyway. But I couldn't get into his second serves, and that was the disappointing part about today," Federer said.
The American opened the second set with a break -- firing a stinging service return on break point -- and broke again in the fifth game for a 4-1 lead.
Federer fended off two match points against his own serve in the seventh game, but Fish took a 40-0 lead in the next game to give himself three more chances, and claimed the unlikely triumph when Federer netted a forehand.
"I was more nervous, maybe, than I ever have been serving with two breaks," Fish said. "Usually I'm relatively comfortable with two breaks in a set.
"I kept telling myself that there's somebody else on the other side of the court. You just try to blank out who it was and just try to play the ball and keep control of what I could control on my side," Fish said.
Fish had lost all five of his previous encounters with Federer, winning just one set in the process.
"I've had a great record against him, always controlled matches against him," Federer said. "Today was different. He played great today, so congratulations. Fantastic."
Fish became the lowest-ranked player to beat Federer since then 101st-ranked Richard Gasquet of France beat him at Monte Carlo in 2005.
However, Federer said that was misleading, since Fish has been ranked as high as 17th in the world in March of 2004.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
RSS