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  • Quarterfinals at stake when Fish faces Monfils

    9/1/08 2:03 PM | Ricky Dimon
    - Mardy Fish and Gael Monfils will kick off Labor Day action by battling for a spot in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open. It would be the first quarterfinal appearance in New York for either player.

    Mardy Fish reached the New Haven title match last week and has already clinched his best-ever U.S. Open, but throughout all of those victories, no opponent has made him work as hard as he will have to work on Monday afternoon. The speedy and giftedly athletic Gael Monfils will be on the other side of the net. It will be the first time Fish has to deal with Monfils' scrambling ability, as the two men have never squared off head-to-head.

    Monfils has already terrorized three opponents with relative ease this week. The No, 32 seed dispatched Pablo Cuevas in round one in just over an hour and a half, needed four sets to subdue Evgeny Korolev in the second, and then destroyed seventh-seeded David Nalbandian in a third-round straight-set blowout. Another thing Monfils has going for him is that when healthy--as he appears to be at the moment--he embraces the limelight of big stages like Grand Slams. The Frenchman, who once won the junior Slams in one calendar year, reached the semifinals of the French Open this season before making it to the quarterfinals at the Olympics.

    Fish has never enjoyed he same kind of major success, especially not at the U.S. Open. In eight previous visits to Flushing Meadows, the American had never progressed past the second round. Now he's one win away from the quarterfinals, thanks to wins over Robert Smeets and Paul-Henri Mathieu in four sets, and James Blake in an emphatic three-set upset.. Fish showed no signs of such a run as of just a few weeks ago. The No. 35 player in the world stunningly reached the final of the Masters Series Indian Wells in March, but he then endured a dismal summer slump. Fish lost in the first round at Wimbledon, Newport, Toronto, Cincinnati, and Washington.

    Fish will have to be the Fish of the past fortnight if he wants to have a chance against Monfils. The pro-USA crowd will help, but it's up to Fish to be remarkably consistent with his forehand because Monfils is going to get a ton of balls back and work over that side. Fish can dictate play, but the question is for how long. Look for him to fade away late in the fourth set after several hours of grueling tennis.

    Fish says winning a night match in week 1 helped him appreciate the Open even more.


    Fish says he desperately wants to do well at his home Grand Slam.

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