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BNP PARIBAS OPENMarch 12, 2012Mardy FishINDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA M. EBDEN/M. Fish THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. You physically in one piece or are you a bit battered and bruised? MARDY FISH: Yeah, I think any time in the middle part of the year someone's got something going on, but I can't complain right now physically, for sure. Q. Did the knee hurt? I mean, you bloodied it. It's just a scrape? MARDY FISH: Yeah, a scrape. Q. Your frustration level is probably not too low right now. MARDY FISH: No. Q. Talk about the match and your feelings about what went on. MARDY FISH: I'm not sure. We just spent however long it's been since the match just to try and figure it out, you know. You're not sure if you, you know, want to get back tomorrow and spend six hours every day until Miami on the court or you want, you know, a month of break. You know, you're just not sure. I certainly am ‑‑ since 2009 I certainly am the first of that, you know, just putting in the work. You know, I have been putting in the work. I have been around here a long time to realize that there are certainly highs and lows, you know. You try to keep the highs as long as you can and keep the lows as quick as possible. There's no doubt that this is a low, for sure, for me. You know, you've got to ‑‑ obviously you have to stay positive. There's just no way around it. You have to look at the fact that I have worked my butt off to be where I am right now and be 8 in the world, and, you know, we've put in a lot of sweat and a lot of work to be here. So just the start of the year is not going to take that away, but I certainly would have liked to have started better. Q. What are you not doing now that you were doing last year? MARDY FISH: Um, I think first and foremost competing, I think, is a major part of it. You know, you always want to walk off the court and feel pretty comfortable that you, you know, did everything, you tried everything. I was able to do that for a long time. And I certainly wasn't able to do that before 2009. I could always‑‑ since my knee surgery and since my weight loss, I could always fall back on the fact that I tried as hard as I could. I wanted to win every single time I stepped out on the court. I tried everything possible, you know, whether it's trying to hit a ball at the other guy or yelling at somebody or something just to try to get myself fired up and in a position to try to win. Because that's the bottom line; that's what you want to do. I think I've lost that a little bit. You know, there are certain things that you want to‑‑ you know, you always want to improve your weaknesses. Mentally I felt like that was an area that I could improve in the offseason, and I tried. I tried to improve that. We spoke to a few people, you know, mental coaches and things like this, and I don't think it worked, bottom line. So I'd like to get back to competing better, competing at a higher level, competing at a position where I am, and, you know, not giving these guys, you know, some of their best wins of their career just off me. You know, these are matches that I've ‑ this is a long answer‑ but these are matches that I won last year routinely. I beat almost everyone last year that I should have. That was why I ended up in London at the end of the year. You know, you just gotta minimize the time of the losing and just move on. I mean, there's just no time to worry about it. Miami is going to start on Wednesday, you know, and there's just‑‑ no one's gonna feel sorry for me so I have to turn it around. Q. Saying last year you had the feeling you wanted to compete mentally, match in and match out; then why in the offseason did you go to a mental coach? Did you start to lose a little bit of interest in the fall, or was it chronic or... MARDY FISH: No, no, not at all. I felt like the negative energy that I had on the court I could try to channel it better. That was maybe the goal. You wanted to‑‑ you know, again, I was always comfortable with being able to walk off the court and say, you know, I wanted that worse than the other guy. If he won, he won. That's fine. But I felt like it was a weakness. I mean, just like I felt like my forehand could get better and my volleys can get better. I feel like I can improve my serve and improve my backhand. I mean, I just‑‑ you know, you want to try to improve. I just‑‑ it was‑‑ I had good intentions, for sure, to try to improve in that area. Q. How much of this last 12 months maybe is coming back at you in that it was the chase, you looking for all those results and working to do everything to get those results and achieved that, and maybe now in one sense it could be a little bit of a letdown because you achieved what you set out for and it's a bit different now? MARDY FISH: Maybe, yeah. I mean, it's different. There are certain perks that you get and then certain things people don't understand, as well. That your time is less and less, especially, you know tournaments like this and the US Open and tournaments like Miami where, you know, I've got to manage my days, you know, around sponsors' visits, and, you know, media requests and things like this. And that stuff is different for me and not easy to do. Some people handle it better than others, for sure. But to answer your question, I don't think I'm in a position where, oh, you know, I made London and now I'm satisfied and now I'm just gonna coast. I won't do that. I'm just in sort of a lull, and I'm gonna try to get out of it as fast as I can. Q. Back in the days of Connors and McEnroe, the game was pretty much a circus and a lot of rules were put in. Now we have a situation where a player cracks a racquet, doesn't hurt anybody or Andy pops one up in the stands in Cincy or the Serena situation with Stosur and today. Do you think sometimes the rules of the game are too restrictive? MARDY FISH: I just feel like maybe just speaking on today, it's sort of‑‑ I feel like if he, maybe if he‑‑ first off, it was totally my fault. I mean, first of all, just for him to get that ball, he's one of the fastest guys out there, for sure. I thought I hit a winner and I thought it was going to bounce four times. For him to get that on one bounce was an amazing get. I feel like the rule is off in a sense that, okay, if he makes that shot, I'm totally fine with giving him the point because, you know, I was‑‑ I spoke too soon, for sure. But I feel like maybe we should play a let on that just because‑‑ and I won't‑‑ you know, not even take the point. There's just no way that you could say that that shot was going to go in had I not said anything if you're 100% certain on that. I made a mistake, and I would have been totally fine with playing a let on it. But to give, you know‑‑ I mean, that's a pretty big spot there, you know. You're one point away from basically losing the match and going‑‑ I was one point away from holding. I mean, that didn't really have‑‑ I don't think it had an effect on him making or missing the shot. But I feel like maybe a let there, unless he hits the shot in. Then that's different. I don't know. You tell me. I mean, I've never done that before on tour in my life. I was just trying to fire myself up, to be honest with you. Q. Do you think there is any kind of irony there is the hindrance call when people call out, Come on and so forth, but the shrieks and grunting in the game from some of the other players are incredibly loud and can't really tell... MARDY FISH: Fortunately we don't have that too much on our tour. We don't have to worry about it too much. No, I certainly was in the wrong, but it was an honest mistake. I mean, it was just‑‑ I thought I hit a good shot, and it wasn't good enough, I guess. Q. Does the chair umpire have the rules flexibility to say... MARDY FISH: He does. I think he does. Q. That's not my reading of it. It's different with the slams and the ATP. Q. There's not too much leeway in there. MARDY FISH: Yeah. Okay. Well, he has a right to say whether he thought I hindered though, correct? Q. Basically my reading of it says that if you intended to say come on, then that's a point penalty. It's not that flexible. MARDY FISH: Okay. Well, he made it seem like it was the other way, that he was 100% sure that I had an effect on the shot. So that's fine. I think the rule is a little off, but it was my mistake. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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