|
mardy takes aim at andy
The Agassi-Fish fist pumping incident
Mardy : ‘It fired me up. It
made me want to beat him even more;’
Andy: 'One of Pete biggest things
was his insane confidence in himself. ... That's not a level I've
gotten to'
By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net
© Mark Lyons |
| Agassi pumps fist at Fish …
and pays the price. |
FROM THE SIEBEL OPEN IN SAN JOSE
– Mandy Moore's favorite valentine, Andy Roddick, has a
lot to be proud of these days. He's the US Open defending champion,
had a decent stint at No. 1 and is a much more engaging and thoughtful
person than he was two years ago.
Roddick has stepped up significantly over the past seven months,
but his stairway to tennis heaven is long and winding. He's ranked
No. 3 now and while he's proved that he's a top-five player on
fast surfaces and owns the game's most fearsome serve, he hasn't
shown that he's better than the other upper-shelf elite players
– Roger Federer, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Marat Safin, Lleyton
Hewitt and Andre Agassi.
It would have been nice to see Roddick face off against Agassi
in Sunday’s final, but lo and behold, his own temper and
the much-improving Mardy Fish got in the way in a 5-7, 6-4, 6-2
loss.
Agassi has melted down in a big way before in San Jose, but never
in a mano-a-mano confrontation with a young American player.
At the Siebel, Agassi has "The
Spitting Incident;" the "Vicious Cursing at a Lines
person and Subsequent Default" incident; and now we have
the "Fist-Pumping Incident," where Agassi appeared to
mock Fish’s fist pumping in the final game of the second
set and also seemed to be launching F-bombs in the 22-year-old’s
direction.
Here’s what went down in game 10 of the second set with
Fish serving: After Fish hit a winner in the first point of the
game, he demonstratively pumped his fist in the direction of his
coach, Kelly Jones, who was sitting right near Agassi. On the
next point, Fish missed a backhand down the line and Agassi looked
toward Fish and fist-pumped toward him. In the 12 years I have
covered Agassi, I have never seen him fist pump during a match.
Fish then hit a service winner and ripped a backhand, down-the-line
winner and screamed loudly to go ahead 40-15.
After Fish missed a forehand
volley, Agassi said, "C'mon, you fucking asshole." that
appeared to be directed toward Fish. Mardy then nailed a 125-mph
service winner to close out the set.
While Agassi denied that he was imitating Fish’s fist-pumping,
he wasn’t very convincing. Fish said that it was clearly
directed at him.
Mardy
: ‘It fired me up. It made me want to beat him even more’
"It fired me up," said Fish, who crushed a career-high
29 aces. "It made me want to beat him even more. He thought
I was fist pumping at him, which was untrue. I was fist pumping
at my coach. When he thought it was apparent, the only reason
I looked at him because I thought he was questioning the call,
because it was really close call. I’ve never fist pumped
at anyone before. Why would I do that to Andre Agassi?"
Agassi said that he was upset with himself for losing control
of the contest due to his wayward serving. However, the incident
happened while Fish was serving. "I was just frustrated with
myself and needed to do something to get myself going," Agassi
said. "Obviously, it didn’t work."
Agassi completely fell apart on the third set, as he was broken
twice and didn’t compete with his normal intensity.
Fish served incredibly well, ate up Agassi second serves, hit
gorgeous running two-handed backhands and stood strong in crosscourt
forehand rallies. The 22-year-old all-around has said before the
match that playing Agassi for the first time wouldn’t be
a big deal, because he didn’t pay much attention to the
pros until he was 17, when he took up tennis full-time. Mardy
is much tougher than he appeared when he came on tour full-time
four years ago."Maybe that what he was trying to accomplish
by giving me the first pump, he was trying too intimidate me a
little," said Fish, who crushed 54 winners to 33.
"I could see players playing a guy like that, getting down
an early break and saying, ‘I'm never going beat a player
like that' … [but] put me on the other side of the match
against anybody and I’m going to try to beat them."
Roddick photo: Siggi Bucher
Mandy Moore photo: © Mark Lyons |
| From Andy to Mandy: Will she
get a Siebel Open title for Valentine' Day? |
FORMER ROOMMATES GO AT IT
Fish has an even bigger task against Roddick, his former roommate
and close friend who is 2-1 against him. Last summer in the final
of Cincinnati, Fish held two match points, but Roddick aced him
twice and won a 4-6, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4) victory.
Fish came into the tournament ranked No. 21 and could go as high
as No. 18. Roddick will surpass Juan Carlos Ferrero at No. 2 on
Monday, but is still way behind Roger Federer. He needs a big run
here, in Memphis, Scottsdale, Indian Wells and Key Biscayne to threaten
the Swiss.
It's impossible to criticize his serving at any level this week.
In the quarters again old junior doubles partner Joachim Johansson,
he blasted 27 aces and only hit one double fault compared, while
knocking in 72 percent of his first serves.
"It works," said Roddick, whose 27 aces were a personal
best in a three-set match. "I've been feeling good rhythm on
my serve. I'm getting the kind of action I want. The biggest difference
is placement."
The world's fastest server, Roddick has hit 63 aces in four matches.
He's ultra confident in his ability to hold serve, but won't put
himself in the same category as all time great Pete Sampras.
"I'm definitely not Sampras," he said. "I have to
go for it. One of Pete's biggest things was his insane confidence
in himself and rightfully so, but that's not a level I've gotten
to."
He displayed all his A-1 serves in his 7-6 (3) 6-2 TKO of fellow
American Robert Kendrick in the semis, including his ear-drum piercing
flat one, his wicked slice and his mule-kicker. But Johannson and
Kendrick don't return like the bald legend, who Roddick says is
still the best in the game.
The 21-year-old Roddick is murder from the baseline when he's able
to plant his feet, but still isn't that impressive on the run. His
forehand is bigger than Fish’s, but his backhand isn't in
the same league and as Mardy showed with his 29 aces, against Agassi,
he can on a great day match him in the service department. The winner
of this contest will largely be determined by who serves better.
It’s hard for close friends to be great rivals, but both these
men are street brawlers. Whether they party together off court,
they’ll try to bloody each other’s noses on court. While
they may never develop a classic in-your-face rivalry, Fish is now
playing well enough to be placed into Roddick’s hemisphere.
If he wins this tournament, one could argue that he has a shot to
end the year as the highest-ranked American.
Now that would be worth a fist-pump aimed at the whole world.
|
