Mardy Fish will probably spend at least a day, maybe two, growling to himself about the lost opportunities in this championship loss to world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, but I suspect he’ll get over it fairly quickly.
And after he replays his mistakes, both physical and mental, which he committed on this mildly windy Sunday afternoon in Montreal, and after he’s paddled himself for losing control of his forehand in the final set, he can start thinking about Cincinnati.
That’s one good thing about back-to-back ATP 1000s. You don’t get much time to feel sorry for yourself after a loss in a final. You have to get ready for what probably will be the final tournament preparation for the U.S. Open.
It was yet another historic day for Djokovic as he set a record by winning a fifth ATP 1000 in a single season, extending his mesmerizing record for the year to 53-1, and I’ll get back to him in a bit. Right now, I’ve got more to say about Fish, who, I think, is not quite finished inching forward in his professional career, even at the relatively advanced age of 29.
No question, he caught Djokovic on a day when Nole wasn’t playing near the standard he had set in winning eight previous tournaments this year, including the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
And for most of the second set of this 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 defeat, Mardy was the better player. But, while Djokovic picked his game a bit in the final set, he didn’t pick it up by that much. He got a big assist from Fish. If for only the second day of the year Djokovic was there to be taken, Fish just wasn’t up to claiming the prize in the final set.
Still, when he’s done kicking himself, he’ll begin recounting all the good things in this match:
* Busting Djokovic’s serve in the fifth game of the second set, then steeling himself to not only level the match at a set apiece, but break Djokovic again in the final game, which allowed him to start serving in the third.
* The tenacity of his backhand, which consistently forced Djokovic deep and disallowed him from dictating points with regularity.
* His resilience. Djokovic is a great front-runner and when he had run out the opening set, Fish redoubled himself mentally. That was impressive. He rebounded.
* Also, fighting off three match points before Djokovic pounded a service winner for the trophy.
But there was the not-so-good Mardy as well:
* Only 54 percent first serves in for the match, including a suicidal 35 percent in the opening set.
* Failure to cash any of three break points in the fifth game of the opening set and then, strangely, getting away from the penetrating backhand crosscourts that were frustrating Djokovic to try to pound a couple of backhands down the line. Both failed at crucial moments.
* The brain burp at 2-4 in the final set when he had a gimme inside the service line, a simple backhand drive down the line with Nole frozen at net in the middle of the court. Fish hit a marshmallow right at Djokovic, who blocked a lob-volley over Mardy for the point.
* Finally, the horrible fifth game of the final set, which gave Nole the break he needed to win. There was that unhappy fifth game again.
Fish will go to Cincinnati with a 34-18 record. His weight loss has been chronicled a thousand times, so you don’t need to hear about it again. But his improved movement on the court, which of course is related to the weight loss, continues to be impressive. What doesn’t get enough notice is Fish’s composure. He’s never been able to grind as well as he is now.
This was Fish’s third straight final (won Atlanta, lost at Los Angeles) and, on balance, he had a great week in Montreal. But you sense there’s still more work to be done. He’s been as far as the quarters of three Grand Slams in his career, including Wimbledon this year. But he needs to reach a final four to authenticate his status as a top-10 player.
If he continues to play with this kind of confidence, I’ll give him 50-50 on a New York hardcourt to beat Rafa Nadal, Roger Federer or Andy Murray. Djokovic? Well, that’s another story. He’s now 0-7 vs. Nole and he lost to Djokovic on a day when the No. 1 looked very uncomfortable at times.
In the opening set, he hit a great number of first serves into the net. Not good. In the second, he spent more than a few moments screaming at no one in particular and, at one point, slammed his racket down, picked it up, and gave it another flip.
Yet, even with his diminished play, you knew he would find a formula in the final set. His serve improved greatly. He cut down on his unforced errors. And, most critically, Mardy threw in a couple of wild forehands and blew an overhead by letting it drop too far to give away the fifth-game service break at love.
So ended a wild week in Canada, in which three of the top four were out quickly, including Nadal and Murray in their opening matches. That happens when you take a month off after Wimbledon.
It did not, however, affect Djokovic, which swept through the draw to the final vs. Fish. Yes, he regressed a bit for this one match, but there won’t be a scintilla of lost confidence.
He’s 53-1 for the year, 14-1 vs. top-10 players and 21-1 vs. top-20s. He’s beaten Nadal five times and Federer thrice and against players in the top 10 he’s 33-10 in sets.
Let’s move on to Cincinnati, where Djokovic is, naturally, in the top half of the draw and where Fish is in the bottom. They could only meet in a final. . .again.
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One final footnote: Not a good look at courtside with Fish wearing K-Swiss clothes and his coach, the estimable David Nainkin, sporting Nike. Get coordinated, guys.