US Open Quarters - The Fish Bowl

Flushing Meadow, New York – At the start of the US Open, few tennis bettors would have slotted Mardy Fish in the quarterfinal round of their tennis betting bracket, yet the second week of US Open betting is in full swing and that is exactly where the unseeded American has positioned himself.

In a career best performance at the US Open, Fish surprised three seeded players in his push to the quarters – 24th seed Paul Henri Mathieu (R64), ninth seed James Blake (R32) and 32nd seed Gael Monfils (R16). The reward for his efforts is a court date with top seed and World No.1 Rafael Nadal. So will Nadal end his Cinderella run or will Fish accomplish the unthinkable and stun the Spaniard?

Whatever happens today Mardy Fish has already clinched his best US Open showing. Now, when he meets the matador Nadal in the quarters he will try to quash Nadal’s hope of clinching his best US Open outing – Nadal’s best US Open result was a quarterfinal appearance in 2005 wherein he lost to Mikhail Youzhny.

Fish comes into the US Open in rare form. In his tune-up to the final Grand Slam of the year, he reached the final of New Haven but lost to Marin Cilic. He also made the semis in Los Angeles (l. Del Potro). In 2008, Fish came out of nowhere at the Indian Wells Masters, blowing past Roger Federer in the semis before losing to Novak Djokovic in the final. Immediately after his sensational performance though, he returned to whence he came from, fading from the draw in subsequent events in the early rounds.

Before the US Open, the hard up Fish was all but counted out. He was not even expected to make his matches competitive because he had been wallowing in obscurity for much of the season – save for his New Haven runner up finish that was largely attributed to the absence of quality players from the draw as they were competing in Beijing.

Fish was never a player associated with much Grand Slam success. Fish came to a Grand Slam quarterfinal only once in his career last year at the Australian Open (l. to Andy Roddick). In eight visits to Flushing Meadows, the currently No.35 ranked player only reached the second round. Now he is one win away from a berth in the semis.

Fish possesses huge weapons but is one of those streaky players who can be a world-beater when he gets it all together but the consistency to be a top 20 regular fixture seems beyond him. He has the tools to make a match of it against Nadal, even trouble him. All-or-nothing is Fish. He can be great at times and downright awful at other times.

To beat Nadal Fish needs to be consistent. He needs to be serving incredibly, getting a ton of first serves in, and win many free points on his serve because in the baseline rallies he will have a hard time hanging out with Nadal. Against Monfils, he came to the net a lot. The same strategy would work well against Nadal.

It has been a tournament full of surprise. While I do not expect Fish to win, he should not be underestimated. Given his current form, and that they are playing at Primetime in Fish’s home Grand Slam event, he should be expected to win at least one set.

Nila Amerova is a freelance sports writer and regular contributor to the BetUS.com Locker Room