Mardy Fish, the top-ranked American at No. 8 in the world, walked off the court bloodied and bowed here at the BNP Paribas Open after losing a controversial match against an Australian newcomer Matthew Ebden 6-3, 6-4.
The blood came from a scraped knee when Fish dove for a backhand volley and rolled over on the Stadium 2 court. The controversy happened in the penultimate game when Fish yelled out “Yea!” as he hit what seemed to be a perfectly angled forehand drop volley winner.
But Ebden was onto the ball quick as a flash, and although he could do nothing with it, the umpire correctly decreed that Fish had broken the ‘no hindrance’ rule by opening his mouth before his opponent had hit the ball.
Fish, unsure of the exact rule, thought the umpire had it within his powers to have the point replayed and told the official so in no uncertain terms. But the rule says it was Ebden’s point because he had a play on the shot. It took the Aussie to break point, too.
Fish saved that and held, but there was no denying this South African born 24-year-old who grew up in Perth, Australia. Showing no nerves, Ebden kept charging the net and closed out the best victory of his career in style.
After the loss, Fish wasn’t really concerned about the bloody knee or the umpire’s call — “I think the rule is a little off, but it was my mistake.” He was worried about his state of mind. Last year he qualified for the eight man ATP World Finals field in London by beating everyone he should have and maintaining a consistent thirst for victory.
“First and foremost, competing,” he answered when asked what he was not doing now compared to last season. “You always want to walk off court feeling pretty comfortable that you did everything, tried everything.
“I was able to do that for a long time, although I certainly wasn’t able to do it before 2009. I think I’ve lost that a little bit.”
It looks as if it was something Fish was worried about — a sort of premonition, perhaps — in the offseason because he decided to go and see some coaches dealing with the mental side of the game.
“Bottom line, I don’t think it worked,” he said. “I’m just in a sort of lull and I’m going to try to get out of it as fast as I can.”
The problem with seeing your ranking slip out of the top 10 into the 30s is that you can run into players like Tomas Berdych. That posed too much of a problem for Andy Roddick in his present state of health and confidence as the American lost to the No. 7 seed from the Czech Republic 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.
Roddick played some of his best tennis of the year in winning the second set but, even though he continued to strike a good ball in the third, Berdych struck it better. Once Berdych gets into his rhythm the former Wimbledon finalist becomes almost unstoppable.
"He played better than me in the third set," said Roddick who was evasive about the state of his body. "I played, I competed and he beat me. If you play you're fine."
No sign of a lull for Novak Djokovic. The world No. 1 overcame the tall South African Kevin Anderson, who won the Delray Beach, Fla., title last week. Djokovic beat Anderson 6-2, 6-3 after a tougher start to the match than the score suggests.
“We had a couple of long games,” Djokovic said. “The opening five games took half an hour or more. He’s very aggressive on the return games and he has a great serve as you can imagine from his height. So I had to return well and be patient and wait for my chances.”
John Isner, Ebden’s fourth-round opponent, produced a solid display to overcome Argentina’s Juan Monaco 7-5, 7-5.
On the women’s side, the experienced Russian Nadia Petrova, ranked as high as No. 3 in the world in 2006 and currently ranked 33, outlasted the reigning US Open champion Sam Stosur 6-1, 6-7, 7-6 after missing a match point in the second-set tiebreak.
There was a measure of revenge for Petrova with this victory because she had lost to Stosur at Flushing Meadows last September in the longest women’s match (three hours, 16 minutes) since the introduction of the tiebreak in US Open history.
“Yea, after that loss in New York, it’s been hard,” Petrova said. “I was pumped coming out today. I wanted to turn everything around. I don’t think I played unbelievable, but my composure was perfect and Sam wasn’t at her best. She was framing balls.”
Maria Sharapova struggled a little towards the end of her second set against 50th-ranked Simona Halep of Romania, but came through 6-3, 6-4.
“I started going for a bit too much at the end and hit a few errors I shouldn’t have made,” said Sharapova, who is the No. 2 seed. “But I got it together at the end.”
Being that this tournament is being played in Southern California, it seemed appropriate when Sharapova was asked whom she would like to be played by in the movies.
“Very good question,” she replied. “When I was younger I would say Gwyneth Paltrow. I’ve kind of admired the way she’s gone about her life and movies and always enjoyed watching her.
“But I think I’d want to do a book before anything with a movie. I personally love to write. I can’t wait to have the time to really put the effort into writing something about my life.”
It’s shaping up to be quite a story.
