Weight down, wins up for 28-year-old righty
Washington tennis fans may not recognize Mardy Fish this year. There’s 30 pounds less of him. And as his weight has plummeted, his performance has soared.
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With his 6-4, 6-3 victory Tuesday over 2008 Legg Mason finalist Victor Troicki, Fish has won 11 straight matches, easily the best streak of his career, which includes championships last month at Newport and Atlanta.
“I feel like a completely different player. I feel like a completely different person, on and off the court,” Fish said. “You can play a match in Atlanta, where it’s clearly 115 degrees on the court and you can still last, and outlast the guys.”
With his victory on Tuesday at the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center in Rock Creek Park, Fish advanced to a match with Marin Cilic of Croatia in the round of 16. In their two career meetings, Cilic has beaten Fish, once each of the last two years. But that was a different version of Fish.
For years, the 6-foot-2 Minnesota native was a big-serve, go-for-winners player. But when it came time to grind out long, tough points, especially in the third set, his fitness wasn’t there and he was more prone to play high-risk tennis.
According to Fish, the biggest benefit from his sleek physique is that it allows him to practice longer.
“I’ve always worked hard, but I’d stop when I got really tired,” said Fish, 28. “Now I don’t get tired.”
Even at 203 pounds, which he weighed last year, Fish was good enough to win at Delray Beach, reach the finals in San Jose and attain a ranking as high as No. 20. But as the year wore on, Fish developed knee problems, a result, he said, of carrying too much weight for too many years. After losing five of his final six matches in 2009, he had knee surgery.
By changing his diet radically (high protean, low fat) and cutting out nighttime meals, Fish has whittled his frame to 170 pounds.
Last month at Atlanta, Fish beat Andy Roddick for just the second time in 11 tries.
On Tuesday night, he frustrated the volcanic Troicki, breaking early in both sets and cruising behind his accurate strokes from the baseline.
“I was trying to move the ball around the court and move him a little bit,” Fish said.
It was an ironic statement, considering that’s the strategy others previously used effectively against him.
