By Christopher Lancette
 Fish crushes forehand against Tipsarevic. |
MONTREAL – Energized by his tournament win in Atlanta and a week of rest, World No. 8 Mardy Fish dispatched Janko Tipsarevic 6-3, 6-4 at the Rogers Cup on Saturday to earn his spot in Sunday’s championship match. He will face No. 1 Novak Djokovic, who advanced after semifinal opponent Jo-Wilfried Tsonga retired with an arm injury while trailing 4-6, 0-3.
Djokovic will attempt to become the first player in history to win five Master’s 1000 events in one season. While his previous opponent Gael Monfils described his bruising match against the Serb as “push, push, push, boom!” in referring to Djokovic’s power from the baseline, Mardy Fish anticipates a match with more of a bang, bang, bang pace to it because both players will be at the net. Djokovic responded to that WTM comparison by agreeing that the match will more likely resemble Fish’s notion.
 Djocovic seeks to make history on Sunday. |
“Good way to put it, I still haven’t heard that,” he said with a laugh, before engaging in a serious analysis of what’s ahead on Sunday. “I don’t think my game will significantly change, you know, tomorrow. I will play the game that I always play: aggressive from the baseline, trying to take every chance to go for the shots.
“But there is different tactics with every player, that’s for sure. Mardy is one of the rare players that plays serve and volley nowadays. I think these conditions, which are a bit faster, are quite suitable to his style of game. He’s been winning his matches quite comfortably. He’s been serving extremely well. But I think if I return well, as well as I did in the last two matches, I have a good chance.”
For his part, Tsonga said the pain in his arm forced him to withdraw.
 Tsonga exits court after retiring. |
“I’ve had this since three days,” he said. “At the end, at 1‑0, after that, it was really difficult for me to hit the ball well and enough hard. That’s why I took this decision.”
Tsonga gave Djokovic a bit of competition in the first set. The difference came down to about 60 seconds of play. Seeking to even the set score at 5-5 on his serve, Tsonga hit a backhand that just missed the left baseline, putting him down 30-40 in the game. Djokovic drilled a backhand into the feet of a charging Tsonga on the next point to take the set 6-4.
Earlier in the day, Fish jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first set and never looked back, attacking the net so frequently that it surprised even Tipsarevic.
 Fish has served well this week. |
“One of my goals is to go out there against someone like him and break up his rhythm and sort of play not a style that everybody else plays,” the 29-year-old Fish said of his fourth straight win over Tipsarevic. “I feel like I’m capable of doing that, capable of playing a couple different ways. I mean, he’s the kind of guy where if we just play a baseline game, bounce‑and‑hit, he’s probably going to beat me. He’s got great ground strokes and he’s very comfortable from the baseline.”
Fish’s win improves his record to 33-15 on the year after Rogers Cup victories over Feliciano Lopez, Ernests Gulbis and Stanislas Wawrinka. His performance, his best to date at this tournament, also makes him the first American finalist since Andre Agassi in 2005.
Tipsarevic appeared tighter than he has all week but began to relax and strike the ball more fluidly in the second set. Down 1-2 with Fish serving, the Serb went up 30-love after scrambling to cover a few well-placed shots and ultimately forcing Fish to hit a lob long. Tipsarevic broke Fish’s serve on the following point when Fish raced through a backhand that he hit into the net.
 Tipsarevic fell flat after great week in Montreal. |
The comeback effort proved short-lived, however. After trading holds, Fish broke Tipsarevic to take a commanding 4-3 lead – leaving Tispsarevic to slam his racquet into the ground out of frustration. They traded holds on the next two games before Fish closed out the match with flair – scoring in the final game with an ace, leaping overhead smash, service winner and pick-up volley.
“He’s mixing up the game, as I said yesterday, and changing up the pace and the rhythm,” Tipsarevic said. “But you need to stay focused playing against him from start to finish because he’s not playing, let’s say, like Tomas Berdych, in the same rhythm the whole match. He can go to the net, stay back, be aggressive, be defensive. Combining that with a great serve, and I have to say a very good first‑serve return, which he improved so much, he’s definitely a top‑10 quality player.”
The good news for Tipsarevic is that he will be a Top 20 player for the first time when the new rankings come out on Monday thanks to his Rogers Cup performance. He said the wins over No. 15 seed Fernando Verdasco and No. 7 seed Tomas Berdych this week give him a boost of confidence for the rest of the hard court season.
“But the most important thing is that even though I played a lot of matches in Washington and here, including doubles, I feel healthy, fresh and fit,” he said. “I’m ready to play more and win even more matches.”
Fish’s week continues thanks in part to employing an improved return game, especially on the forehand side.
“I take returns every single day before matches and in practice just to the forehand,” he said. “Sometimes I don’t even take the backhand, but just to the forehand, to try to get the groove on that side.”
 Bryan Brothers confer between points. |
Doubles: Bob and Mike Bryan cruised to a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Tomas Berdych and Florian Mayer. The 702nd win of their careers under their belts, the Bryans face Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic in the championship match on Sunday. They advanced to the finals by beating Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor 6-3, 6-4. [Check out WTM’s new “The Changeover” interview with the Bryan Brothers.]
The duo knows there will be no margin for error on Sunday, especially if the match heads to the newer style tiebreak format for a third set.
“I think it’s just there’s a sense of urgency, a sense that you can’t really let up or give any free points,” Mike Bryan said. “So you’re kind of a little bit more on edge. You’re playing with more energy, more focus. You know that you have to get out of the gates a lot quicker. You go down a set, and you’re playing a tiebreaker for the third, which is kind of a coin flip.”
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Photo credit © Won-ok Kim
