WESTERN AND SOUTHERN FINANCIAL GROUP MASTERS

August 14, 2003

Mardy Fish

MARDY FISH: Good introduction, Sharko.

MARDY FISH: I don't know so much about just getting experience in these types of situations, you know. I've been saying for a couple years now how, you know, every big match that I play is kind of a learning experience to get up to the main stage, you know, where I want to be ultimately. And, you know, tomorrow it will be no different - my first quarterfinal, hopefully, of many more, of many. And, you know, I mean, I definitely know whoever I play, I can beat them. You know, I'm playing well. I played great today. I served well today. If I serve well, I feel like I can beat anybody.

MARDY FISH: Yeah. He's the kind of guy that makes you - makes me - play my game, lets me play my game. You know, he hits -- he makes you play a lot of balls. He has a lot of them that -- you know, he hits some short balls sometimes, and short balls are, you know, kind of my specialty. I like to come to the net, like I've always said. And, you know, today was no different from me as far as executing my game. I knew that -- I, you know, went out there knowing that if I executed my game well to where I know, you know, know how I can play, I should be okay, so...

MARDY FISH: Yeah, it definitely wasn't easy to get over that. I mean, you know, that's a huge game, that first game. If I break him there, I'm just kind of steamrolling him. I remember at Love-40, I missed a forehand, a pretty easy forehand up the line. Then he played a good game. There was nothing I could do after that. Then I held, and then he went up 40-Love on his serve and I came back and won the game. So it was kind of like -- I kind of said to myself, too - it was kind of funny - I said to myself when I went down 40-Love, I said, "Okay, now I'm gonna come back and win the game." And, sure enough, I did.

MARDY FISH: Who knows? I mean, a guy of that caliber, a guy that's ranked Top 30 is not easy to put away. You kind of have to take all your chances. I thought, you know, in the back of my mind, I was thinking maybe that was my chance to get the second -- get the break early in the second set, and hopefully, you know, kind of serve my way through the second set in the match. You know, luckily, I stayed aggressive on my returns. You know, that's what I've been doing really well this tournament. And, you know, I kind of put a lot of pressure on him to come up with the good shots, and he didn't.

MARDY FISH: I mean, I kind of felt that going into this year. I mean, kind of felt like I worked really hard in the off-season at Saddlebrook and, you know, this year was my year, along with hopefully Robby and Taylor and those other guys. You know, I think we've shown that we can play out here and we belong out here and, you know, that we're not just gonna stay at 40 in the world; we're gonna hopefully keep going up.