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  • Fish meets Mathieu in U.S. Open second round

    8/28/08 7:23 AM | Ricky Dimon
    - Mardy Fish will face Paul-Henri Mathieu on Thursday for a spot in the third round of the U.S. Open. Fish is looking for his first career win over Mathieu.

    It will be the third head-to-head meeting between Mardy Fish and Paul-Henri Mathieu when the two players square off in the second round at the season's final Grand Slam event in Flushing Meadows, New York. Both previous encounters came last year, with Mathieu taking a third-set tiebreaker in Indian Wells and winning 7-5 in the third at another Masters Series event in Madrid.

    Fish could have a better shot at Mathieu this time around, as the Frenchman was in blistering form for much of 2007. He started out hot again this year, but cooled off considerably during the U.S. Open Series. Mathieu lost in the first round in both Toronto and Cincinnati, so he took a three-match losing steak into the Beijing Olympics. This Open's No. 24 seed, however, began to right the ship by reaching the quarterfinals before falling to Fernando Gonzalez. Mathieu got his U.S. Open started by coming back from a set down to beat countryman Sebastien Grosjean in four sets.

    Like Mathieu, Fish also started to reverse his fortunes just in time for his New York visit. After he stunningly reach the final of the Masters Series Indian Wells--upsetting Nikolay Davydenko and Roger Federer en route--the American then endured a dismal summer slump. Fish lost in the first round at Wimbledon, Newport, Toronto, Cincinnati, and Washington. Last week in New Haven, however, he made it all the way to the title match, where he lost to up-and-coming 6'6'' Croat Marin Cilic. Fish kicked off his U.S. Open campaign with a four-set victory over Australian Robert Smeets.

    Fish must serve better than his 47-percent effort against Smeets if we wants to pull off a victory over Mathieu. His ground game is far too erratic at the moment to survive on the court with the Frenchman if he is not winning a significant amount of free points with his big first deliveries. Mathieu simply needs to get into as many rallies as possible and consistently pound away at his opponent's forehand. The smart pick is Mathieu, but if Fish can start strong and get the crowd into the match, he has a good chance.

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