US OPEN

August 28, 2006

Mardy Fish

THE MODERATOR: First question, please.

Q. That was some pretty good serving there. A little burp in the third set. But all in all, good performance?
MARDY FISH: Yeah, I was happy. Any time you beat someone that beats you the time before, you know, it's nice revenge.
Yeah, you know, I served well for the most part. Third set might have gotten down there a little bit. You know, maybe felt like two breaks down, if I couldn't get that break there at 4 1, that I might as well save my energy and get ready for the fourth set. And really feel like I still felt like I was playing well. Didn't feel like the momentum had changed at all. Kind of knew what I had to do there, and had to basically had to felt like I had to hold serve and I'd have my chances. Sure enough, held throughout until 3 All, then got my chance and took it.

Q. Your backhand, not quite up to standard until the fifth set.
MARDY FISH: No, but it's nice to win with the backhand not being as good. You know, I hit my forehand well, moved in well. That's always backhand's always there. It's just minor hiccups every now and then, I think.

Q. Did you do anything differently to prepare for this Open?
MARDY FISH: Uhm, last week we used last week, played a couple matches last week. After every match I've never really practiced after a match. Todd wanted me to go out there after and use that. I don't think he wanted me to play last week and I kind of went behind his back and signed in myself because I wanted to play. I like that tournament a lot. He wanted to use that as a practice week, and I wanted to use it as a tournament week.
So kind of put our heads together there and really worked hard after the matches and practiced a couple times a day, which is usually not the case right before a tournament. Day before a tournament, usually hit a couple times or you just hit once a day. But we hit a couple times every day. That was definitely different.

Q. Should we expect to see as much net attacking from the baseline and serve and volleying in other matches, or was that just for this match?
MARDY FISH: I would say that probably I will come in a lot more next match, I think. I knew this guy returns real well, especially off the backhand wing. I never played Djokovic before. He's got a lot of firepower. I'm sure we'll kind of feel each other out. I haven't seen him play much either. I'm sure he hasn't seen me play much as well. I'm sure we'll feel each other out in the beginning but. That's a long ways away.

Q. Second rounds have been bad for you here.
MARDY FISH: They have. Eventually I got to win one, right?

Q. The draw's a little rough here.
MARDY FISH: Yeah, it's all right. It's not like you're playing Federer or Nadal, you know. It's definitely, you know I feel like it's a winnable match. He's had some great results on clay this year and, you know, can obviously play well on any surface. That goes without saying. I don't think a fast hard court is quite his favorite court, and this court suits me pretty good.

Q. Andre is playing in his 21st and last US Open. You were I think five years old when he played in his first. Most of your conscious life he's been in the spotlight. What has he meant to you, what has he meant to tennis?
MARDY FISH: Yeah, we get that question a lot lately. It's tough to put into words, to be honest with you. I mean, James says I use James' quote: He's such a great ambassador for the sport. You think about tennis, non tennis fans think about tennis, they say, "Have you played Andre Agassi?" Some of my buddies from high school, they know nothing about tennis, "Have you played Andre Agassi?" I'm like, "Yeah, I beat him." They think I'm joking.
Then to have the honor to play him twice, play him well twice... I'm gonna come out tonight. I'm gonna go back and then come out and watch. I'm not saying by any means that it's going to be his last one, but I don't want to not see his last one. I'll try to catch most of his matches here this year for sure.

Q. Andre is the last of the generation with Courier, Chang, obviously Pete. American tennis fans really want to see you guys, the next generation coming up. Reflect on that. What do you feel? Do you feel it's time for a new generation? Obviously, Andy certainly got the momentum going underway, James with the great show last year and continuing on. Do you feel like you really want to be a part of what those guys had?
MARDY FISH: Absolutely, yeah. Absolutely.
You know, but, again, we were just so spoiled with that, with those guys. I mean, we had five guys, four guys that were No. 1, were close to No. 1. Mal Washington made the final of a Slam. Todd Martin made the finals of two Slams. I don't think you'll ever get a group like that again. Someone like Pete, who has won more Grand Slams than anybody else. Andre, who is the biggest name in tennis.
You know, but I mean, we're going about it I think we came at a bad time, you know. We came behind those guys. Everybody expects Grand Slam titles, and us playing for Grand Slam titles. I mean, tennis is so popular now outside the United States that there's so many good players and so much talent everywhere, you know, coming from everywhere. Everyone these days everyone is so good. People ask, you know, you have a good draw here. Everybody's good. You don't have there's no good draws.
You know, everybody was very spoiled with that, I think, with those guys. It's obviously extremely it's almost impossible to follow in those guys' footsteps, but we try, for sure.

Q. There was an interesting article in the New York Times today saying a lot of people are going into a lot of these extreme sports, things like that, pulling kids who might have wanted to be tennis players into an X Games type of thing, motocross. Do you think it's harder to get young players interested? Is it not hip and cool in the States?
MARDY FISH: It's just tough because it's not on TV much. They do an unbelievable job here of televising this tournament. Then there are just a lot of tournaments where I'm sitting, you know, in Washington, D.C., for instance, first round match with Tim Henman and someone else, second round match. This is a good match. Why not put this on TV? Why isn't this on TV?
It's tough. Those things like X Games, they're all on TV. It seems like all the time they're showing reruns and stuff. It just doesn't get as much television time, you know, to get people into it, it seems, to get young kids into it.

Q. After Wimbledon, have you considered hiring a taster? Superstition about what you eat?
MARDY FISH: I am superstitious with what I eat. I eat at the same restaurant usually every week that I'm at a tournament. I usually eat at the same restaurant the night before a match. It's nicer at Slams because you have a day in between. You can go somewhere else in between. It's tough when you play every day, you have to go to the same restaurant every day.
I don't know I don't know what the cause was that. I ate a lot of pasta, I ate really healthy, drank a lot of water and stuff. I guess it was just bad luck.

Q. Mr. Chow's?
MARDY FISH: We went there last night.

Q. Hasn't really worked very well in past years.
MARDY FISH: Yeah, I don't know. I'm still gonna stick with it, though. Still hoping for a big run this year.

Q. What did you have last night?
MARDY FISH: We have the you want me to reel off the whole menu?

Q. You had the whole menu last night?
MARDY FISH: No, but it's like an ala carte type thing. Some steak, chicken, rice and stuff. It's good.

Q. What do you think of the younger players like Djokovic coming from Serbia, Cyprus, guys 19, 21.
MARDY FISH: Don't forget Andy Murray in that discussion, as well. I think he's among that crop, Monfils, Gasquet. I mean, there are a lot of, a lot of good players coming up, a lot of talent. Monfils is one of the best athletes you'll ever see in any sport. That guy is just an unbelievable athlete. I want to reel off every one. Djokovic hits the crap out of the ball.
Yeah, it's a good it's a great group of guys not from one country. It's almost, like he said earlier, like, you know, if all these guys were American, it's like that back in the day when Pete, Andre and all those guys were coming up. These guys are from different countries. They all can play, for sure.

Q. There's been so much about the instant replay. How does that change the game, your mindset out there?
MARDY FISH: Well, the human aspect of line calls is gone, obviously. You know, I felt like that was a big part of the matches, really. You know, getting a bad call or getting a good call and the other guy getting a bad call. You can walk through and talk to every single person in the locker room, has lost a match over a line call. It's not gonna happen if you're playing on the big courts anymore.
So in a way it's good because I can see it both ways. In a way it's good because you're always, you know you're not gonna lose over a bad call, you know. But, then again, you got guys like Hewitt, Nadal and Federer who are great mentally. The mental side of the game is such a big part of the game; those guys have definitely benefitted over being so strong mentally over someone who's a little bit weaker and getting a bad call. Hewitt, per se, getting a bad call and just brushing it off, whereas someone else probably myself would be a little pissed. You know, so that part is gone, but it's nice to get 'em right.

Q. On the call today, any hesitancy to ask for it?
MARDY FISH: Well, I felt like it was more situational than anything else, you know. I felt like I still had two challenges. I don't know what the score was, but pretty sure it was pretty close to the end of the set. You know, it was a second serve on his game point. It was close. I mean, I turned around and went to the towel. I figured it was in. But might as well you know, it's there. Might as well use it.

Q. You're pretty good friends with James. Can you talk about the camaraderie. Do you guys really do anything in between tournaments, anything that's like extreme? I know Andy likes to go skydiving.
MARDY FISH: Yeah, we don't do that. James has gone skydiving a few times, I think. I don't like to put my life in that danger without no.
We live basically on the same street in Tampa. We golf a lot in Tampa. Down time is it's nice to have a buddy that close 'cause I moved over from Vero Beach and not very many of my friends they didn't come with me, obviously, at all. They're still there or in college or moved on. You know, so you kind of adopt new friends really. And guys that we were around all the time, like James and these guys. You know, James and I have become very close over the years. It's nice to have such a good guy so close. We both like the same things. We both love playing golf. We both love hanging out. Down time is definitely fun.

Q. No shark diving or alligator wrestling?
MARDY FISH: No, not for me. Maybe for them, not for me.

Q. What is your perception that umpires are less apt to overrule calls? Is that a downside of it?
MARDY FISH: I don't think so. That's part of it. You have a certain amount of challenges you have to leave in the players' hands. You don't see it anymore that a guy will overrule a call. You kind of just say, he would have challenged it anyway. What's the big deal?
I don't think it's I don't think it's I mean, you know, maybe they're a little hesitant on the far sidelines and stuff where before we might have gotten a little mad that they didn't overrule. But they kind of leave it up to us. We have our I think that's the good thing about it, though. I don't like the fact that maybe we had an unlimited amount of challenges. You got to be strategic about it.

Q. You don't find they're not overruling obvious calls that in the past they would have overruled?
MARDY FISH: No, because today he overruled twice and they were both relatively obvious. One was on the line right in the short line to him, and another one was on the baseline. He overruled it.

Q. How aware of you about possibly making history today?
MARDY FISH: I have no idea. I didn't know if Justine did or not.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports...