Fish saves U.S. in Davis Cup playoff

When it comes to winning big matches in the sport's most meaningful events, Mardy Fish hasn't come close to achieving what fellow American Pete Sampras did. But last weekend in Bogota, the 28-year-old tore one page out of the 14-time Grand Slam champion's book, becoming the first man since Sampras to win all three points for the United States to clinch a Davis Cup tie

Mardy Fish (left, in white shirt) gave his U.S. teammates plenty of reason to celebrate.

Fernando Vergara

Fish finished off his feat in the World Group Playoff with a hearty 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 4-6, 8-6 victory over Colombian No. 1 Santiago Giraldo on Sunday.

While Fish's accomplishment didn't have the same meaning as Sampras' did — Pete won his three matches in the final against Russia in Moscow in 1995 — it did have its similarities, as like Sampras, Fish traveled to a foreign locale to compete on his least favorite surface (red clay) and drained every last ounce of energy out of himself to pull off the feat, competing in 14 sets in 10 hours and 59 minutes of playing time.

Not only did he face down Giraldo by often brilliantly mixing up his attack, but on the opening day, he played patiently enough to repel Alejandro Falla 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. Then, after his teammate Querrey looked lackluster in a quick defeat to Giraldo, Fish teamed with John Isner to take a 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3 win over Robert Farah and Carlos Salamanca in the doubles rubber, where he returned intelligently and was a demon at the net.

“It was as tough a relegation match as we could have had with the altitude, the balls and a quality opponent,” Fish said. “To win three points in one Davis Cup match under these circumstances, is one of the biggest — if not the biggest — accomplishment of my career.”

Much has been made of Fish's weight loss and improved conditioning over the past year, which is one of the primary reasons why he's been able to crack the top 20 again, but not as much has been made about how he's pushed himself mentally to become a relevant player again.

In Bogota, he was asked for the first time to take on a leadership role, as top-ranked U.S. player Andy Roddick decided not to play Davis Cup this season, captain Patrick McEnroe decided not to take the doubles specialist Bryan brothers to Colombia because he felt like he needed a backup singles player, and James Blake, who was the U.S. No. 2 for much of the past five years, wasn't selected to the team because of poor form.

That left Fish to help guide the 25-year-old Isner (who was only playing in his second tie), the 22-year-old Querrey and the 18-year-old Ryan Harrison. He was forced to lead by example, as Querrey may have been affected by Bogota's high altitude and clearly wasn't himself, and Isner was still coming off a severe ankle injury that nearly caused him to skip the U.S. Open.

Had Fish been unable to stave off Giraldo, it appeared that McEnroe was going to play Isner in the fifth and deciding match, and given the hostile circumstances and Isner's slight lack of conditioning due to the injury, he may not have been able to go five with Falla.

That's why Fish knew when he went down a break to Giraldo at 6-5 in the fifth set that he had to break back and he did, coolly running off three games in row while his opponent's hands shook in front the home crowd.

“A lot of work and a lot of sacrifice went into this,” said Fish. “A year ago today I wouldn't have been able to do this. I fought as hard as I could.”

With his heroics, Fish finally stepped out of his good friend Roddick's shadow and at least briefly, into the limelight. He had a chance to do much the same at the U.S. Open earlier this month when he came into the tournament on a hot streak, but eventual finalist Novak Djokovic destroyed him in the fourth round and exposed some of his limitations from the baseline.

But the explosive American didn't get down on himself and arrived in Bogota with a purpose. After Spain's Carlos Moya took him apart in the 2004 final, Fish became all but a forgotten man in Davis Cup circles, as McEnroe consistently went with a team of Roddick, Blake and the Bryans. Fish had only appeared in two ties since 2004 before Bogota: a doubles victory with Mike Bryan in 2008 against Spain when Bob Bryan was injured, and a singles defeat to Marin Cilic in July of 2009 when he subbed for an exhausted Roddick.

In McEnroe's last tie as captain, he called on one of his old warriors and then watched him remarkably pull a Sampras. Whether the next U.S. Davis Cup captain (Jim Courier and Todd Martin are said to be the two leading candidates) will go purely with youth movement or call on the likes of Fish again is unknown at this time, but if the point of the competition is to actually win ties, then Fish deserves a tremendous amount of consideration in 2011.

“What a Herculean effort from Mardy this weekend,” McEnroe said. “Mardy's was one of the greatest efforts in Davis cup history — forget my 10 years as captain. To win three points in these conditions — with the altitude, the crowd and everything. He is in illustrious company.”

Serbia to battle France in Davis Cup final

While Fish and the U.S. boys fought to stay in the World Group, little yet mighty Serbia pulled of a first in reaching the final, as Janko Tipsarevic won two singles matches, including the decider in a 6-0, 7-6, 6-4 victory over Czech Radek Stepanek to give his country a 3-2 win in Belgrade.

Tipsarevic, who upset Roddick at the U.S. Open, needed to come up huge as Djokovic was too exhausted from his U.S. Open run to play on Friday, and Stepanek had taken down his sub, Victor Troicki. But Tipsarevic had stepped up to stun Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych on Friday and even though the Czech duo took the doubles point from Serbia on Saturday, the stage was set for a Sunday comeback. A refreshed Djokovic tackled Berdych 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 and then Tipsarevic stayed solid against the marathon man Stepanek.

“Finally, it was my turn to shine for the national team after the others, mostly Djokovic proved to be instrumental so many times,” Tipsarevic said. “I am glad I saved my best tennis for the national team in a match of this magnitude.”

Serbia will meet nine-time Davis Cup winner France at home in the Dec. 3-5 final, a very deep squad which hung a 5-0 whitewash on Argentina. French captain Guy Forget has a lot of options, but will likely go with three men who played key roles in the win over Argentina — Gael Monfils, Michael Llodra and Arnaud Clement (for doubles only) — and then possibly tab former Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga if he's healthy enough, or former top 10 player Gilles Simon. Whatever the case, Forget knows they are in for rough weekend.

“You know how hot the crowd will be over there, wanting to win the Davis Cup for the first time,” he said. “It would be a nightmare for the players, but they're not young and they have experience and will be ready for the task. They will have to play at their best and if we do that and win it will be one of the biggest upsets in Davis Cup, like we did a few years ago in Australia.”

This time around, Djokovic will likely have to win both his singles matches and Serbia will also need another win from Tipsarevic, as Llodra and Clement will be favored in the doubles. While Serbian doubles specialist Nenad Zimonjic is a fine player, captain Bogdan Obradovic keeps switching his partners around, making it hard for the 34-year-old to get comfortable.

But Djokovic made it sound like Serbia's first Davis Cup title is almost a done deal.

"No team in the world are favorites in the Belgrade Arena, not even if they have the best singles and doubles players in the world," Djokovic said. “I am confident we can keep our unbeaten record intact.”