Mardy Fish lands the big one – next up Andy Murray in Cincinnati Masters | Sport | The Guardian Mardy Fish lands the big one – next up Andy Murray in Cincinnati Masters • American enjoys first ATP Tour singles win since 2013 • Novak Djokovic faces Benoît Paire in the second round Mardy Fish through to face Andy Murray in the Cincinnati Masters. Photograph: Geoff Burke/USA Today Sports Press Association Tuesday 18 August 2015 12.01 EDT Last modified on Monday 4 April 2016 08.26 EDT Close This article is 1 year old Mardy Fish will play Andy Murray in the second round of the Cincinnati Masters after claiming his first ATP Tour singles victory since 2013. The 33-year-old American, who has revealed he will retire following the US Open, missed 18 months of tennis because of a heart condition but he dispatched the world No20 Viktor Troicki 6-2, 6-2 in only 68 minutes. Fish said: “I was a little surprised at my level. I hadn’t practised a ton or particularly well for a little while.

I was struggling with my serve. A friend of mine came in a couple days and helped, but it was still sort of a struggle even yesterday to sort of find my serve. I was obviously real happy with the level.” Next up on Wednesday will be the world No2 and Rogers Cup winner. “He’s pretty fantastic so far,” Fish said of the in-form Murray. “He’s won a ton of matches. He’s won more matches than anyone this year, so he’ll be tough.” Ivo Karlovic is through to a second-round meeting with Martin Klizan after beating 10th seed Gilles Simon 6-4, 6-7, 6-2 while Thomaz Bellucci edged Jiri Vesely 7-6, 6-2 to book a meeting with Tomas Berdych. Benoît Paire’s prize for conquering Gilles Müller 7-6, 7-6 is a duel with the top seed and world No1, Novak Djokovic , while Marin Cilic lies in wait for João Sousa after the Portuguese removed Philipp Kohlschreiber with a 6-2, 6-7, 6-2 victory.

Gaël Monfils, the 14th-seed went out 6-4, 7-5 to Jerzy Janowicz, while Andreas Seppi defeated his fellow Italian Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 6-3 and Bernard Tomic defeated Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-4, 6-3 to progress. In the women’s competition, Venus Williams resisted a spirited performance from Zarina Diyas to triumph 7-6, 6-4 and will next face Ana Ivanovic. The Wimbledon finalist Garbiñe Muguruza made an early exit thanks to Yaroslava Shvedova, who beat the ninth seed 6-4 ,7-6, while Timea Bacsinszky was another seed to exit early after Madison Keys pulled off a 6-4, 6-3 win. The qualifier Timea Babos shocked Sam Stosur to progress as a 7-4, 4-6, 7-5 victor.

Jelena Jankovic recovered to beat Madison Brengle 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, while Coco Vandeweghe dominated Yulia Putintseva 6-3, 6-2 and Karin Knapp toppled Ana Konjuh 7-5, 6-1. Andrea Petkovic downed her fellow German Julia Görges 6-4, 6-2 and there were three-set wins for both Tsvetana Pironkova and Varvara Lepchenko. The last matches to finish saw the 14th seed Elina Svitolina recover from a wobble to beat Alison Riske 6-2 4-6 6-0 and Irina-Camelia Begu needed an hour and a half to knock Alize Cornet out of contention with a 6-4, 6-4 win. Tennis - The comeback of Mardy Fish the person Tennis comment Not long ago, Mardy Fish was spiraling into a world of full-scale distress. "I was at the bottom, man," Fish told ESPN.com earlier this week. "I was in a deep, deep place.

It wasn't like I needed a little bit of medication and a couple therapy sessions and we're back." After Fish lost to Juan Monaco in the Sony Open quarterfinals in early 2012, his heart started to race violently. Fish went to the emergency room and was later diagnosed with severe cardiac arrhythmia. A couple of months later, he underwent a procedure to correct faulty electrical connections in his heart, but the mental scars led to severe anxiety, and it was accelerating. In September that year, the situation became so critical that Fish was experiencing panic attacks every 15-30 minutes. He had no answers, no escape from the assault of debilitating heart palpitations. He was helpless, as was his wife, Stacey, along with his inner tennis circle, those who knew Fish primarily as a world-class athlete. The last time we saw Mardy Fish on a tennis court came at the 2013 Winston-Salem Open. Bob Leverone/Getty Images Those dire days since being diagnosed with extreme anxiety disorder have since passed, and this week, he'll return to Indian Wells -- his first rendezvous with tennis since he retired in the third round of the Winston-Salem Open in August 2013.

He has now educated himself on the cause and effects of the disorder and is making an effort to bring awareness to those who suffer from mental illness. "This is a personal triumph for me and for the people around me who know the situation," the 33-year-old Fish said. "The people who know where I was and how bad I was, how long this went on for and what I have been through. But also for those who appreciate the direction I am headed in." Fish finds comfort in discussing the perils of a disorder that, as he notes, affects 30 million Americans a year. He calls it a world that completely opened up his eyes. "There were times I felt I'd never get my life back," he said. "Am I ever going to be normal and go out with my friends and have a beer and not think I am going to wake up at 3 a.m. and have anxious thoughts about what normal people are doing? Can I sleep by myself? Can I travel by myself?

"I was a guy who loved to be on my own at times and to travel and some of the most comfortable times were in the middle of my career flying overseas, where you have to turn your phone off and no one can get to you for 10 hours. It was just a really comfortable place for me." Comfort on court has a different meaning now. With everything he's endured emotionally, wins and losses seem more or less superficial, Fish said. His success will be gauged on how he fares health-wise. In a fiercely individual sport where conclusive outcomes are inevitable, Fish isn't focusing on the bottom line. "Frankly," he said, "I don't really care what my results are." At his worst At first, Fish was too ashamed to speak of the demons. For a professional athlete, the inability to function on the same level as the average person was humiliating. In 2012, just after he withdrew from the US Open in the fourth round against Roger Federer , a panic-stricken Fish experienced what he calls his personal low point. "We tried to get on a plane that afternoon to go home," Fish said. "They closed the doors and I couldn't go.

Thank god my wife was with me because I'm not sure I would have had the nerve to tell someone I needed to get off this plane. We had left the gate and actually had to go back. It was embarrassing. We just left our bags on the plane and figured we'd get them another time. I actually had to rent a plane to get home because I didn't think I could get home commercially." "There were times I felt I'd never get my life back." Mardy Fish Fish made it home, but his condition declined. He ventured out of his house, but only to see his psychiatrist. For 3½ months, Fish isolated himself from the chaos of real life. Fish's former coach and 55-time ATP doubles champion, Mark Knowles , remembers Fish at his worst. "Forget tennis, it was about finding the joy in each day and being able to get through it without the anxiety," said Knowles, who teamed up with Fish in February to play a Challenger event in Dallas. "Mardy is a truly gifted athlete who was blindsided by [this] condition." Fish's incessant bouts with anxiety attacks made him question his sanity. "Am I breathing OK?" he recalled. "Am I going to stop breathing?

Do I need an ambulance? Did I eat too much? Drink too much? "Your heart starts racing to the point where you think it's going to stop." Simple things, such as going to the movies with his wife, required summoning his courage, but Fish had to establish strict parameters simply to feel comfortable. "We had to go during the day and we had to sit next to the door," Fish said. "And I told her if I'm not feeling well we have to leave. I had to have a Xanax in my pocket just in case something happened." Fish doesn't recall which movie it was, but he mercifully managed to sit through the entire showing. A minor moment for most of us; at the time, a massive win for Fish. The slow road to recovery Fish didn't pick up a racket for nine months after his Winston-Salem withdrawal. The idea of resuming the sport he had flourished in for his entire life seemed foreign. Mardy Fish's primary goal is to spread the word that if he can overcome an anxiety disorder, anyone can. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Desert Smash But he also admitted he kept close tabs on the game and aspired to one day be back on the court, his longtime sanctuary.

Ultimately, though, Fish found refuge elsewhere. "I played as many golf tournaments as I could," Fish said. "I killed time by playing and practicing. It's something I love to do; it's fun and I was good at it." Fish shot in the sub-70s on occasion and for some time envisaged a professional career on the greens but was drawn back to tennis, which he believed offered him the best chance at rehabilitation. Slowly, Fish began to noodle around with his game again. On occasion, he'd hit with friend and 2003 US Open champion Andy Roddick , "but only to break a sweat," Fish said. Those hitting sessions eventually parlayed into something more. As he became more comfortable on the court, Fish realized he needed to leave on his own terms; not let his career end the way it had -- under a cloud of anxiety. "This game has given me a lot," Fish said. "I feel very blessed to play a sport for a living. But at the end, I feel the game owes me the luxury of going out when I'm ready. The way I did leave, it wasn't because I was injured. It wasn't an Achilles or an ACL or anything like that.

It wasn't just a freak, random thing." Spreading the word The healing process has taken not just time but a good deal of learning. It's too soon to speculate what the next few days hold for Fish, who plays fellow American Ryan Harrison third on Center Court in the first round at Indian Wells on Thursday, but Fish is optimistic. ESPN analyst Brad Gilbert, who formerly coached Andre Agassi and Roddick, among others, believes the current landscape bodes well for Fish. If Mardy Fish decides to make a full-time comeback, there is reason to be optimistic. Matthew Stockman/Getty Images "One thing Fish can take stock of is that Feliciano Lopez is 33 and ranked a career-high No. 12. And the 36-year-old Ivo Karlovic is ranked No. 24. Older guys are playing a lot better," Gilbert said. An L.A. resident, the commute to Indian Wells is short and seamless for Fish. His entire family will be there -- his 1-year-old son, Beckett, his wife, parents and his wife's parents. And, as Fish was quick to point out, his dog. Once ranked as high as No.

7 in 2011, Fish isn't sure whether he'll return full time to a trade that requires rigorous globetrotting through various time zones without taking a breath. "The tour can be very stressful, but it is also important to know that we all manage things differently and they can manifest themselves in many ways," Knowles said. "There are many levels of pressure that a player must endure throughout their career. As it is an individual sport, you bear most of this pressure on your own shoulders regardless of how great your support system is around you." For now, the back-to-back Masters 1000 events at Indian Wells and Miami are enough. "I want to get my life back, and this is the next step in doing that," Fish said. "It's educating the mental illness community and the people who have gone through anxiety or panic disorders or depression. "These issues are overlooked in our society. It's important, very important, for me to tell people who are going through this that I am, too.

And hopefully they can relate to me and see a success story." Tennis star Mardy Fish trying his hand at golf Tennis star Mardy Fish trying his hand at golf Former top 10 player's career stalled by a heart condition and hopes for PGA Tour card Post to Facebook Tennis star Mardy Fish trying his hand at golf Former top 10 player's career stalled by a heart condition and hopes for PGA Tour card Check out this story on USATODAY.com: CancelSend A link has been sent to your friend's email address. Posted! A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. 1 To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs Tennis star Mardy Fish trying his hand at golf Douglas Robson, USA TODAY Sports 7:06 p.m. ET Nov. 14, 2013 Mardy Fish has seen his tennis career stalled due to a heart condition. But he's able to play golf and has entered some tournaments.

(Photo: Pat Lovell USA TODAY Sports) Story Highlights Fish missed cuts on the All-American Gateway Tour Heart condition has limited tennis career Former top-10 player Mardy Fish, whose career has been in limbo due to a heart condition and its psychological after effects, is dabbling in professional golf. Fish, 31, played two events in the last three weeks on the All-American Gateway Tour, a developmental circuit for up-and-coming professionals hoping one day to earn their PGA Tour card. He failed to make the cut at both the ASU Karsten Golf Course in Tempe, Ariz., Oct. 29-Nov. 1, and the Whirlwind Golf Club in Chandler, Ariz., Nov. 11-13. Fish has missed most of the past two tennis seasons while recovering from an accelerated heart beat that first struck him at a Davis Cup match in February 2012. It resurfaced at the Sony Ericsson Open in March that same year. Doctors induced extreme heart palpitations to try to pinpoint the problem. Fish also underwent a heart procedure known as cardiac catheter ablation to resolve a form of arrhythmia.

Following a number of fits and starts, Fish hasn't played since August, when he retired in the third set of his match against Jarkko Nieminen at a tournament in Winston-Salem, N.C. He pulled out of the U.S. Open the following week citing "personal reasons." All told, he went 4-5 in five ATP-level events in 2013. Reached by email, Fish did not deny he was taking a stab at pro golf, which included three-week trip to Florida this fall to train with a PGA pro. But said he did not want to discuss it until he had "a few days to think about things." His agent, John Tobias, did not return repeated emails and phone calls. Fish may be looking to follow in the footsteps of Scott Draper. Draper, an Australian once ranked in the top 50, attempted to transition to pro golf after retiring from tennis. In 2007, he won the New South Wales PGA Championship on the PGA Tour of Australasia. Fish, a Minnesota native who lives in Los Angeles, has talked superficially about the "demons" that have dogged him despite assurances from doctors that he is fit to compete.

"It took me months and months to get back to normalcy – to have a glass of wine at dinner, to go out to a movie with my wife," Fish told reporters last March at a charity exhibition in Los Angeles shortly before returning to competition after a six-month absence. "Just those normal things that you take for granted I wasn't able to do for a long time." It's unclear when, or if, Fish will pick up his tennis career. Now ranked No. 369, he could return to the men's tour using a protected ranking of No. 25, which would allow him to enter up to nine high-level events, according to the ATP. The protected ranking expires on March 31, 2014. At the few tournaments he played this year, Fish called his situation "day to day" and said that his problems were both mental and physical. The 6-2 power player hasn't competed at Grand Slam tournament since pulling out of his fourth-round match at the 2012 U.S. Open against Roger Federer just hours before he was scheduled to play.

Doug Henderson, a spokesman for the Arizona-based All-American Gateway Tour, said the low-level tour caters to players aged 25-35 looking to break into professional golf. Anyone can enter but it's recommended they have at least a plus-3 handicap "to be competitive," Henderson said. Players who perform well can earn an exemption to the Web.com tour, a direct feeder to the PGA Tour. "He didn't do terribly," Henderson said of Fish, who shot 78-75 in both events, missing the cut by 13 and 12 strokes. "But he didn't quite make the cut." Fish owns six career titles and reached a ranking-high of No. 7 in August 2011. He has advanced to three major quarterfinals at the U.S. Open, Wimbledon and Australian Open and won the silver medal at the 2004 Olympics. The Weight | The Players' Tribune Tennis Player / ATP “Don’t play.” I am hours away from playing in the biggest tennis match of my life: the fourth round of the U.S. Open … on Labor Day … on my dad’s birthday … on Arthur Ashe … on CBS … against Roger Federer.

I am hours away from playing the greatest player of all time, for a chance at my best-ever result, in my favorite tournament in the world. I am hours away from playing the match that you work for, that you sacrifice for, for an entire career. And I can’t do it. I literally can’t do it. It’s early afternoon; I’m in the transportation car on my way to the courts. And I am having an anxiety attack. Actually, I’m having several anxiety attacks — at first, one every 15 minutes or so, but pretty soon every 10. My mind starts spiraling. I’m just freaking out. My wife is asking me, “What can we do? What can we do? How can we make this better?” And I tell her the truth: “The only thing that makes me feel better right now … is the idea of not playing this match.” She hesitates, and looks at me for a second, to make sure I’m serious. I am serious. This isn’t me thinking — this me reacting, feeling, trying to survive. She answers plainly. “Well, then, you shouldn’t play. You don’t have to play.

Just … don’t play.” * My anxiety disorder started in 2012, during what should have been the high point of my career. I was at the end of a long road — a few years long — on which things really started to come together for me. In 2009, I had had this sort of eye-opening experience, this turning point. I was 27. Up to then, I’d had a nice career. It was a career that, in many ways, I could be proud of: I’d won the silver medal at the 2004 Olympics, had some results at a couple of Grand Slams, seen the world, made a good living. But it was nothing sustained. I think it’s important that my story not have a sports vocabulary. I didn’t “choke” in Act Two, and I’m not going to “win” in Act Three. I was newly married, and my perspective was changing, growing. And I think I just sort of realized, in a way I previously hadn’t … that “nice,” as a tennis career, wasn’t good enough for me. That I wasn’t finished. That I still wanted to do some really cool things in the sport.

And that, most importantly, it was now or never. I changed my diet, my lifestyle and, honestly, my whole outlook. I went from 202 lbs. to 172 lbs. — I found my “fighting weight.” I wasn’t really 100-percent sure where any of this was going to take me, but I knew that I had to find out. In 2010, I started to get results. I beat Andy Murray in Miami in straight sets — a result that I never would have gotten a couple years prior. I played back-to-back five-setters at the French Open — losing the second match 10-8 in the fifth to the No. 14 seed Ivan Ljubicic, but playing at a fitness level that I never would have been able to reach before. I won two tournaments in a row that summer, in Newport and Atlanta — beating John Isner in the Atlanta final amid a heat wave on a court that was about 150 degrees. I lost the final in Cincinnati to Federer 6-4 in the third, a match I easily could have won.

And I beat Andy Roddick — who had beaten me like a drum, eight straight — a couple of times. 2011 was even better. I had my best results at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. I passed Andy, one of my best friends, to become the No. 1-ranked American. And then — and maybe coolest of all — I officially became a top 10 player in the world. By the time 2012 rolled around, I was No. 8. It was everything I’d worked for, and built for myself almost from scratch, over those last few years. I wasn’t Just Another Guy on tour. I was on an elite level. And that’s when the anxiety attacks started. Anxiety is hard to pinpoint from a cause-and-effect perspective, but when I think about its genesis for me a couple of things come to mind. The first is that my expectations changed, both externally and internally, along with my ranking. Looking back, this wasn’t necessarily the healthiest thing. My dissatisfaction with the status quo — that had been so helpful when there were 20 players ranked in front of me — crossed over into something more stressful, and then destructive, I think, when that number became reduced to seven.

The idea that I wasn’t good enough was a powerful one — it drove me, at an age when many players’ careers are winding down, to these amazing heights. But it also became a difficult switch to turn off. I was, objectively, doing great. And looking back, I wish I had been able to tell myself that. But doing great wasn’t something that my frame of mind back then had time to process. All I could focus on was doing better. It was a double-edged sword. And the second thing is that I began experiencing these heart arrhythmias. An arrhythmia is basically the electricity around your heart, malfunctioning. My heart would go a little crazy, and I wouldn’t be able to stop it. It was really scary. I took some time off, then had a corrective procedure called an ablation, after which I was ostensibly “fine.” But when I returned to the court that summer, around Wimbledon … that’s when I began to get these really weird, new thoughts. Uncomfortable, anxious thoughts. Like I was nervous about something that was going to happen — even though it kept not happening.

And I think that what I went through with my heart was, in many ways, this trauma lurking in the shadows of those thoughts. I was having trouble sleeping; I couldn’t sleep alone. I had to have my wife there, with me, always. I had to have someone in the room, always. I was a guy who loved being on my own. I loved traveling on my own, that solitude. That feeling of shutting off your phone and heading on a long flight … that used to bring me peace. But I couldn’t travel on my own anymore. My parents had to come out to Wimbledon. I needed people around me at all times, period. And through it all, I just kept having these … thoughts. This anxiety. I became consumed by this exhausting, confusing dread. And the attacks just kept … getting … worse. Ironically, at this point I wasn’t experiencing any problems on-court. I was still having results: fourth round at Wimbledon, quarters in Canada and Cincinnati. I was still playing well. It was only away from the court that this problem existed, and compounded. That these thoughts kept creeping in.

And they were becoming more and more frequent: from once or twice a day, to a handful of times a day, to eventually — when it got really bad, by the end of the summer — every 10-to-15 minutes. Anxious, overwhelming attacks of thought. When I’m back at the hotel, I’m googling “anxiety disorder,” “panic disorder,” “depression,” “mental health” … but really I knew nothing about any of it. I didn’t know what to do. I just had no idea. At least, I told myself, it wasn’t happening on the court. And then it happened on the court. It was at the 2012 U.S. Open, at the end of that summer. I had to play a night match in the third round against Gilles Simon — a higher seed than me, but I was playing better than my seed. I felt good about my chances. It’s a great position to be in. Night matches at the Open are reserved for the best pairings, but also for favorite players — the players people want to watch. And I was one of them. After years and years of being on the outside of that looking in, now I was part of it.

I wasn’t playing in someone else’s match. It was nighttime at the U.S. Open, and I was playing in “The Mardy Fish Match.” That was special, but it was also stressful. The match was up and down, really emotional. I was on edge the whole time: fist-pumping, throwing my racquet, and feeling … anxious. I was anxiety-ridden. And I’ll never forget when it happened — the first, and only, anxiety attack I would have on a tennis court. I was up two sets to one, and we were at 3-2 in the fourth. Out of the corner of my eye, I looked at the clock. It said 1:15 AM. And that, for whatever reason, was enough. That was my trigger. My mind started spiraling downward in this snowball of thoughts: 1:15. Oh my gosh — it’s so late. I’m going to feel terrible tomorrow.

We’re going to play this long match … and I’m going to have to do press after … and then I’m going to have to stretch, and eat … and I’m going to feel bad about that … And it just kept spiraling and spiraling to the point where I couldn’t control it. I had no idea what was going on, tennis-wise. No idea. I don’t remember a thing. Somehow I ended up winning the next three games, and the set, and the match. But I don’t remember it at all. It was nighttime at the U.S. Open, and I was playing in “The Mardy Fish Match.” All I remember is the post-match interview. Justin Gimelstob was interviewing me, and he’s a good friend of mine. I remember looking at him before it started and telling him with this incredible urgency, “Please hurry.” Justin had no idea what I was talking about. But I just kept telling him, “Please hurry. Please hurry.” I had to leave. I had to get off the court. Once it happened to me on the court, I knew. Nothing would be the same again. Then two days later, it all came to a head.

We were in the car, driving to my next match against Roger — and my thoughts were filling with dread. Would it happen on the court again? Was I going to get an anxiety attack, again, in front of thousands of people? Was I going to get an anxiety attack while trying to do my job? The thoughts kept coming, and they wouldn’t stop. They just kept coming, and coming, and coming. I was in a very bad place. And my wife just kept looking at me, and repeating herself: You don’t have to play. You don’t have to play. Don’t play. And I was listening … but I wasn’t listening. I was thinking, Can you imagine? Can you imagine if I didn’t play this match? I couldn’t wrap my head around it. In that moment, I couldn’t wrap my head around anything. But then, finally, I heard her. You don’t have to play. You don’t have to play. Don’t play. And just like that, it hit me — I remember it so vividly, and so powerfully. Oh god, I thought. I’m … not going to do it.

I’m not going to go out there, anxious, in front of 22,000 people. I’m not going to play Roger. I’m not going to play. I didn’t play. First, I didn’t play Roger. And then, I didn’t play at all. * Three years later, I’m back at the U.S. Open for the first time. And though I think that I can still play at a pretty high level, this will be my last tournament. After the Open, I’ll retire from tennis. This isn’t a sports movie, of course, and there won’t be a sports movie ending. I won’t be riding off into the sunset, lifting a trophy. I’m not going to win the tournament. But that’s fine by me — because honestly, this isn’t a sports story. And I think it’s important that my story not have a sports vocabulary. I didn’t “choke” in Act Two, and I’m not going to “win” in Act Three. This is a life story. This is a story about how a mental health problem took my job away from me. And about how, three years later, I am doing that job again — and doing it well.

I am playing in the U.S. Open again. This is a story about how, with the right education, and conversation, and treatment, and mindset, the things that mental illness takes away from us — we can take them back. Tens of millions of Americans every year deal with issues related to mental health. And the journey of dealing with them, and learning to live with them, is a long one. It can be a forever one. Or, worse, it can be a life-threatening one. And I want to help with it. I want to be a success story, in my own way. And I think that retiring on my own terms, in the tournament I love the most, is part of my being able to do that. Talking about it — and keeping the conversation going, and going, and going — is also part of that. Mental health is not a very easy thing to talk about in sports. It’s not perceived as very masculine. We’re so trained to be “mentally tough,” in sports. To show weakness, we’re told, in so many words, is to deserve shame. But I am here to show weakness. And I am not ashamed.

In fact I’m writing this, in a lot of ways, for the express purpose of showing weakness. I’m writing this to tell people that weakness is okay. I’m here to tell people that it’s normal. And that strength, ultimately, comes in all sorts of forms. Addressing your mental health is strength. Talking about your mental health is strength. Seeking information, and help, and treatment, is strength. And before the biggest match of your career, prioritizing your mental health enough to say, You don’t have to play. You don’t have to play. Don’t play … That, too, is strength. * As for what comes next, I’m not sure. I’m 33 now, and I know that I’ll never do anything as well as I played tennis. But that’s fine. I still deal with my anxiety on a daily basis. I still take medication daily. It’s still in my mind daily. There are days that go by where I’ll think to myself, at night, when I’m going to bed: Hey, I didn’t think about it once today. And that means I had a really good day. Those are the victories, for me.

But there is no tournament to win for mental health. There are no quarterfinals, or semifinals, or finals. I will not be ending this piece with a sports metaphor. Because sports end in a result. And life keeps going. Mine, I hope, is just getting started. Mardy Fish | The Official Web Site BENEFITING: MARDY FISH FOUNDATION INC EVENT DATE: Nov 01, 2015 When former U.S. #1 Tennis Professional Mardy Fish picked up his first tennis racquet, his father Tom Fish was right by his side, using tennis as a means to show Mardy a way to accomplish great things. Now, as Mardy wraps up his career at this year’s US Open in NYC, Tom will be with him, honoring his son’s accomplishments, and setting the stage to accomplish even more important things in their future. And what better way to honor Mardy's accomplishments than to offer other children the opportunity to recognize their own potential to accomplish great things? MFCF uses health and fitness programs to teach the same important lesson Tom taught Mardy all those years ago when Mardy picked up that first racquet – that every child has potential for greatness.

Mardy and Tom are honored to celebrate their accomplishments by helping children discover the greatness in themselves. You can help Tom honor Mardy by pledging your support to Tom’s NYC Marathon run. In doing so, you help Mardy and Tom make important and lasting differences in the lives of others. Discover your own potential to be great by helping another child discover their own. Visit mffkids.org to learn more. No donation is too small. Mardy wants to thank everyone for all their support and encouragement. It is greatly appreciated. Great story of courage, Congratulations Fish. Big respect for a huge talented player..... All the best to you Mardy! You're a great guy and we've missed seeing you play on the tour. Kudos for all it has taken you to return and enjoy tennis and life in general again. Great performance on your match after a long while, Mardy. Welcome back. Looking forward to your next tournament. Thank you, Mardy Fish for being a much-needed role model for those people dealing with mental/anxiety disorders! Bravo to your comeback! Nice, tough guy. No doubt. His personal win is more important than winning, say, 17 slams. You are the hero.

You set a GREAT model to my two children. Good luck and have fun on courts. So very happy to see Mardy back on the court. He is by far my most favorite American tennis player. It was a joy to watch him. I wish him only the best for his life on and off the court. But hope it is on the court. Congratulations Mardy on your journey back. Wishing good health and many more matches to Mardy Fish! :) The best for Mardy Fish after struggling so hard !! He is a great player and person! Respect! ASAP Sports Transcripts - Tennis - 2008 - PACIFIC LIFE OPEN - March 22 - Mardy Fish THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Congratulation, Mardy. Could you have played much better today? MARDY FISH: Yeah, just, I don't know. I got a text message from somebody close to me that just said, 3 and 1 would have been better, but 3 and 2 works. Obviously he was joking. You know, this wasn't obviously Roger's best day, but hopefully I had a little something to do with that.

You know, I put the pressure extremely, from the word go, you know, on him, and you know, I wanted to start out -- sometimes in big situations or against guys who return real well - and I consider him the best returner in the world - that I'll tend to receive -- I want to toss, tend to receive, and just to kind of get my feet under me. I said, What the hell. Let's go for it and let's start it off and try and jump start him as best I can. Obviously it was a dream start to go up 3-Love and have a couple break points there at 3-0. He had a break point against my second serve game when I was 2-0. That was a huge game to get through that. Q. How does this compare to hitting ball out at Shea? MARDY FISH: That was pretty cool. I'm a huge sports fan, period. Shea Stadium is a pretty cool place, but it doesn't compare too much. I would trade that home run for another win against anyone, really. Q.

When you're rolling like that, Mardy, and you know what that guy is capable of, is there part of you that's saying, I've got to brace myself, because this isn't going to be it yet? MARDY FISH: Yeah, I won the first set, and obviously I wasn't thinking this, because if I was thinking this I probably wouldn't have won, but I was thinking, okay, I won the first set, but now he's going to kill me, right? Now he's going to be me at 0 and 0. I put the pressure on him, and it's the only way I can really describe it. I mean, it was pretty -- it was pretty quick and it felt, you know, felt like it went by even faster, and it's a great win. Q. Can you think of another upset in tennis history that maybe compares to this one? MARDY FISH: I don't think I'm that bad. (laughter.) I have been top 20 before a couple times, but let me think. I don't know. I'm blank. Let me come back to you on that one. Q. Roger made that point in here before.

He said, look, I don't care what the guy's ranking is. He's been in the top 20. We know he can play. In terms of your game, a match like today, does this make you think maybe you're at an even better level than you've ever been before? MARDY FISH: Possibly. I've always thought I've had the capability of getting in the top 10, and that's always -- you know, that's always been the goal, is to try to get into the top 10 and, you know, be one of those players that, you know, the hunted. I've always been the hunter almost my whole career, and you know, I'm capable of -- I felt like I was always capable of beating everybody, but it was always here and there. It was always sporadically. Putting together these wins this week, you know, gives me a heck of a lot of confidence to know that I can beat three guys in the top 10 so far, and, you know, hopefully one more to go. Q. When Roger has his occasional defeat, most of the players who have beaten him say it's just a matter of believing.

Most people go out and don't believe. MARDY FISH: Uh-huh. Q. Did you believe today? MARDY FISH: Well, I think it helped to get off to a great start, you know, to be brutally honest. If he goes out there and he beats me 6-2 in the first set, I'm not thinking things are going to go too great in the second. So, you know, it's nice to get up. It was nice to win that first set and, you know, then you say to yourself - take a quote out of James' book - Todd Martin told him, If you can win one set you can win two. I actually thought to myself, okay, I won one set, you can win another one. Q. Is there something clicking in your game these last couple weeks that maybe hasn't been there for the last... MARDY FISH: Yeah, I mean, you know, apart from just playing really well, you know, for me, you know, a nice solid game plan, nice pretty easy game plan, you know, staying aggressive and trying to take that first ball after the serve.

These courts are really slow, so it's not really a serve-and-volley-type tennis like I try to do normally on a faster surface. It's more of a serve-and-go and a serve and, and you know, take one or two cracks and then try to go, or try to take the initiative. These guys I've played in the past few rounds are not comfortable really -- I mean, they all defend really well, but the way their bank accounts have grown is because they're aggressive and they're the aggressor. You know, when I'm the aggressor, I'm not sure they like that as much as they like being the aggressor. Q. Obviously Roger's run these past four years has just been incredible, really nothing like it. But now there have been some losses, and shock of shocks. Is there a different sense you think with players who are come on court against him? MARDY FISH: No. I mean, to answer your question, brutally honest, no. I mean, no one thought -- no one in the locker room -- I mean, yeah, we've heard -- you know, we just kind of laugh at it. We just kind of think it's kind of a joke.

You know, oh, my gosh, Roger hasn't won a tournament yet this year. You know, he's only played two tournaments. You know, semifinals while he had mono is pretty good. You know, that match I actually talked to him in the locker room about his match, about Australia, and he said he had a bunch of chances and it could have gone either way. Novak played really well. He just had a bit of bad luck in the beginning of the year. He came up against a really tough draw in the first round of Dubai, and, you know, played a guy that's 11 in the world in the first round. You know, if you're not on top of your game -- I mean, everybody's real good, and if you're not on top of your game, you know, somewhere down the road guys are going to get you. Q. 2003 it was thought maybe your time had come: Cincinnati, 2004 Olympics maybe. Did you think it would take this long, 2008, when you could put together a string this long and sit up here, big press conference, big final coming, you just beat the No. 1?

MARDY FISH: Yeah, I would have thought it would have come sooner than that. I also would have thought I would have been a lot healthier than I have been in the past few years. You know, I missed five big tournaments last year. I've got five zeros on my ranking from French Open to Monte-Carlo to, you know, Montreal to Miami, all those tournaments that I missed. Those are opportunities that, you know, that go on, as well. But, yeah, I obviously would have thought that how great, you know, how nicely my career did start when I was 20, 21, 22 years old, that I would have liked to have kept it going and stayed there, you know, around 20. Tried to put myself in the position to, you know, to really get into the top 10 like I talked about. Q. How calm or how nervous were you serving for the match? MARDY FISH: I was more nervous maybe than I ever have been with two breaks, serving with two breaks. (laughter.) Usually I'm relatively comfortable with two breaks in a set.

You know, and again, I just kind of kept telling myself that, you know, there's somebody else on the other side of the court. You just try to blank out who it was and just trying to play the ball and kind of, you know, keep control of what I could control on my side. Q. Did you hug yourself a little bit too hard there? Just got a slight feeling of, right, I'm not quite believing what's going on here today? MARDY FISH: I figured I did it one time, I might as well keep doing it till I'm done. Q. It's just a precaution, is it? MARDY FISH: Oh, this? Sorry, yeah, this is -- I try to hit my serve as hard as I can every single time so my arm starts hurting every once in a while. Q. The trophy they give out here to the winner because of the corporate sponsor... MARDY FISH: Yeah, it's cool looking, isn't it? Q. Yeah. It's kind of a big fish. Do you think that might be an omen? MARDY FISH: Yeah, that would be nice. I've seen it before.

It's one of the coolest trophies we've got. I'd love to have it on my mantel. Q. Your matchup with Novak going into tomorrow's championship? MARDY FISH: We've played a few times. We had a 7-6 in the fourth at the US Open in 2006, and a 7-6 in the third. We played Hopman Cup, which is an exhibition-type tournament. It was in the final, and I would assume that he wanted to win as much as I did. We've played two good matches. Obviously he's on a heck of a roll. I might call Andy to try to see what he did in Dubai this afternoon and try to get some tips on that. But, you know, it's another one of these matches where I'll go out and try to control what I can try to control and see what happens, give it everything I got. Q. Have there been times this week where you said to yourself, I cannot believe this is my forehand? MARDY FISH: Maybe. Maybe. Maybe, you know, maybe not saying, Oh, wow, I can't believe I made that shot.

But I guess consistent is a tough word to put it, because I am trying to just try to stay as aggressive as possible with it. I'm not trying to hit winners, complete winners off it. I'm trying to beat him with pace, try to beat Roger with pace today up the line and crosscourt. It seems to be working. Q. When you walk up to the net, having played a match like that and won a match like that, does your mind race? What am I going to say to him when I actually get there? MARDY FISH: It's tough. Q. Do you say, Sorry? MARDY FISH: Yeah, sorry, man. (laughter.) I've been on the losing end four times to him, and he's won 53 tournaments, so I don't feel too badly for him. Q. You kept him under pressure early on and sustained it, but was there anything in particular about his game today which surprised you? MARDY FISH: Well, you know, he's always been, you know, extremely solid from the baseline. His forehand is just maybe the most deadly shot in the game.

You know, he had some -- he hit some great shots out there. He's got a different spin than people -- than other guys put on the ball on his forehand, so it's always tough to hit it, just to hit it back. I tried to beat him with, you know, with pace on the forehand side and tried to get over the backhand as much as I can. You know, obviously I don't think he played his best tennis. But I'd like to think maybe I had a little bit to do with it. Q. Can you possibly go into more detail on that spin, how is it different than... MARDY FISH: He just puts so much topspin on it and he can flatten it out and he can spin it -- Nadal has a spinny forehand like that, as well. He always spins it and it's always heavy. Roger can flatten it out. You have no clue where he's hitting it. He can pull it up the line on you as quick as he can hit it inside out. Q. The celebration today after was so much more subdued than yesterday. It's a bigger win. What was going through your mind at that point?

MARDY FISH: I got some huge raspberries from sliding yesterday, so I figured I wouldn't do that. I don't know. It's just one of those -- just kind of I'm not sure what just happened, but I might as well go up to the net because I think the match is over, kind of celebration. You know, it was pretty surreal, you know, for something, for the score line kind of like that. Q. Morgan Pressel is here. Tell us how your golf is. MARDY FISH: Hi Morgan. Yeah, I can play okay. I know your uncle. MORGAN PRESSEL: Yeah. MARDY FISH: Aaron Krickstein. He came to my charity event. Congratulations on your major. Last year here? See, I know golf. My golf game is good. I'm +1. I'm pretty excited about it. I'm a lefty, though. MORGAN PRESSEL: We'll play sometime. MARDY FISH: Okay. Q. You have a made a point of mentioning the crowd support this year. What is it about the crowd this year? How has it been different from other venues here in America?

MARDY FISH: You always get -- in the States you always get -- you know, the fans are always behind the U.S. players. You know, I think everybody likes an underdog, and certainly that today and yesterday, as well. You know, yesterday the support was so big and just got me through, got me through the match when, you know, if I was playing on the same surface and on the same stadium in Argentina, I don't think I would have won that match. You know, they helped me out today. It was huge, and I'm forever thankful for that. This is my favorite tournament of the year, one of my favorite tournaments of the year, and I've always wanted to play well here, and really go deep, and it feels great. Q. Why is it one of your favorites, Mardy? MARDY FISH: I just love the area, the weather is always extremely nice, and they've got plenty of golf courses around, even though I haven't had a chance to play this year yet. It's just very relaxing, people love tennis here, and it's a great venue, and, you know, the hotel is real close, so it's real nice. Q.

You spoke very positively about this match here yesterday. You said, I just beat a guy who beat him, meaning Federer, the past two times. I feel I can beat anybody right now. One would suggest that you almost expected to beat Federer? MARDY FISH: I don't necessarily think that, but I did, after yesterday's match, feel like I could beat anyone after that. Not necessarily the score line yesterday, but just beating someone like David that is so good in tight matches, and like Lleyton who's so good in tight matches, that's a good feeling. Gives you a heck of a lot of confidence. Q. We're looking at 90 degrees again tomorrow. Do you think that helps or hurts your game? MARDY FISH: I think it helps me. I grew up in Florida. It's 90, would be nice in the summer. It's over 100 there always, and the humidity is so low here it just feels like sun, so it feels nice. So I love the heat. I love the summer months, you know, playing in Cincinnati and Indianapolis and Montreal, places like that where it's real hot. Hopefully it will be hot again.

End of FastScripts Andy Murray tested by Mardy Fish and conditions on way through in Cincinnati | Sport | The Guardian Andy Murray tested by Mardy Fish and conditions on way through in Cincinnati Murray defeats veteran American 6-4, 7-6 (7-1) World No2 to meet Grigor Dimitrov in third round Andy Murray was pushed by Mardy Fish in a match lasting an hour and 44 minutes. Photograph: Tannen Maury/EPA Thursday 20 August 2015 01.09 EDT Last modified on Monday 4 April 2016 08.26 EDT Share on Messenger Close Andy Murray won his 54th match of the season – still more than anyone else on the Tour, and one ahead of the world No1, Novak Djokovic – but, on a night dressed up beforehand by rain, thunder and lightning, he had to slay the crowd favourite Mardy Fish in two tight sets to do so. Nearly everything about Fish’s presence in the Cincinnati Masters has been remarkable.

In the penultimate tournament of his career at 33 and in just his fourth match of the season, he had beaten Viktor Troicki in the first round for the loss of only four games two win a shot at Murray, surprising himself as much as the Serbian, who is ranked 20 in the world. Fish had not played a lot better against this class of opponent even before an anxiety disorder cut him down in 2014 – so viciously he was often scared to fall asleep – and wiped out his entire season, threatening to bring his career to a premature close. However, lumbered with a ranking of 1,032 through inactivity, he decided to give it one more go and has slowly worked his way back to fitness and reasonable form – to the point where he was bidding on Wednesday night to become the first player ranked outside the top 1,000 to beat opponents from the top 10 and top 20 in the same tournament since Darren Cahill (1,013) defeated Marc Rosset (16) and Goran Ivanisevic (6) at Indian Wells 21 years ago.

Fish left it all on court – as he no doubt will in his farewell appearance, at the US Open in 10 days time – before Murray, five years his junior and in the form of his life, ground him down to win 6-4, 7-6 (7-1), with just a few lapses, in an hour and 44 minutes. Andy Murray ends drought against Novak Djokovic with Rogers Cup victory Read more Murray plays the struggling Grigor Dimitrov in the third round in the first evening match of the Thursday programme and, coming off a fine win over Djokovic to win the Rogers Cup at the weekend, he is reaching a perfect pitch ahead of the final major of the season. However, he could do with an early finish. This was his third post-midnight finish of the summer, and he remarked later, “It’s tough. And there’s still fatigue there from Sunday.” There was the added complication of playing an opponent he knows well in his second-last appearance on the Tour. “It was tricky,” Murray said. “He’s a good guy and we get on well but obviously I’m desperate to try to win the match. He’s still playing well.

I was lucky, because he hasn’t played many matches, and he made mistakes at the end of each set, which is normal, because he hasn’t played loads. Conditions were tough as well, very humid, so different to last week.” After a lengthy spell waiting for the storms to rumble through and around the flat open spaces of southwestern Ohio, they finally got on to the tournament’s second court about 10.30pm, relieved not to be shuffled into an over-time queue the following day. But both players appeared apprehensive, too, about a surface so tough and sticky that, after a late-afternoon cloudburst, Benoit Paire’s shoes had turned into mangled lumps on Center Court as he twisted and turned in vain against Djokovic (who admitted later he had yet to rediscover his best tennis). Murray and Fish were on Grandstand next door – one of the Scot’s favourite courts on Tour – but the grip was the same as the main arena, and the raucous screeching provided an irritating soundtrack to their efforts. Murray was taking no chances. After a quarter of an hour, he asked for the baseline to be dried after feeling unsteady during his service game.

To take a tumble this close to the US Open would have been the cruellest twist, in every way. Andy Murray serves American fans a sweet surprise – in disguise Read more They exchanged breaks twice in the first set, neither of them completely comfortable underfoot, and thus prepared to go for early winners rather than stretch the exchanges. Murray looked mightily relieved to break for a third time and take the set after 45 minutes of quality struggle. Murray had induced 19 unforced errors out of his opponent, but Fish was risking all, prevailing in five of seven visits to the net. It was no late-night stroll. And, when Fish produced a quite wondrous winner from a respectable Murray smash to hold in the second game of the second set, the Fish Heads, as his supporters are known, rose in their recently soaked seats as one. His grin told a tale of joy just to be still playing the game he loves. They were doubly pleased when Murray drove a loose backhand down the tramlines to give up his serve in the seventh game, and Fish was back in the fight.

Again Murray clawed it back before dumping a forehand in the 11th game to give Fish a chance to level at a set apiece, just after midnight, but he hit long and they went to the tie-break, which Murray won for the cost of a single point. Mardy Fish undergoes procedure to fix frightening heart condition | Dr. David Geier - Sports Medicine Simplified Mardy Fish undergoes procedure to fix frightening heart condition June 7, 2012 Follow Tennis star Mardy Fish has battled a much scarier opponent than Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal this spring – his own heart. The highest-ranking American player is recovering from a cardiac catheter ablation he underwent last week at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. For months Fish had been experiencing heart palpitations, or sensations that his heart was racing, that would wake him up in the middle of many nights. “It was like my heart was going to jump out of my chest,” the world’s tenth-ranked player explained. Even when he wasn’t having palpitations, he frequently lost sleep, not knowing when they would occur again or what would trigger them.

In an interview with USA Today recently, Fish described how the attacks affected his game and his life. “During days, I’m totally fine. I can track it and work out fine. But every time I would go to bed my mind would start racing. Is this going to happen tonight? Is this going to be another night like that? It was super hard to go to sleep.” Dr. Marcus Wharton, an arrhythmia specialist and Director of Cardiac Electrophysiology at the Medical University of South Carolina, claims that these sensations and fears are common. While not knowing the exact medical circumstances in this case, he suggests that these symptoms appear to be consistent with supraventricular tachycardia (SVT). SVT is a surprisingly common heart condition, affecting approximately 1 in 1000 people in the general population, including elite athletes. Wharton describes it in layman’s terms as small areas within the heart which generate abnormal electrical signals to create an abnormal heart rhythm. Part of the challenge with these anomalies is to properly make the diagnosis. The heart will beat normally the vast majority of the time.

While athletes can sometimes trigger these palpitations with exertion in sports and exercise, they can often occur only at rest, as Fish’s symptoms seemed to do. Patients can wear monitors that record heart rhythms to help detect the problem, but Dr. Wharton points out that these conditions occasionally escape detection with these devices. After an episode one night during the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida where his heart pounded and raced as fast as 180 beats per minute, he called 911 and went to a local hospital. He saw several doctors and even tried wearing such a heart monitor. When no specific problem could be isolated, Fish underwent more aggressive diagnosis and treatment. Dr. Wharton explains that doctors pace the heart through catheters to induce the abnormal rhythm while they closely monitor the electrical activity of all areas of the heart. When they find the faulty tissue, they can ablate, or essentially burn, the small areas of tissue causing the problem. Wharton notes that these procedures have high success rates in eliminating the arrhythmias with low rates of recurrence. Recovery times are also fairly short. Often the small wounds in the groin where the catheters are inserted are the only areas that take time to heal.

Patients, and even high-level athletes, can expect to return to normal activities, and even sports, within days. Fish, in fact, hopes to play in the AEGON Championships at the Queen’s Club starting June 11. To tennis players at all levels and any other athletes who experience similar feelings of a racing or pounding heart, Dr. Wharton stresses that they should not dismiss them as anxiety. When in doubt, athletes should consult with a physician to check the heart as well. Often the fear of not knowing when these terrifying episodes will occur is the worst part of these conditions. “It makes people crazy. They don’t know when it will happen,” he explains. The peace of mind provided by these cardiac ablations can be profound. Tennis fans can rest assured that the American star will return to the courts soon and hopefully back to the top of the tennis rankings. Mardy Fish, on the other hand, is likely relieved to finally get some rest at all. For more discussion of Fish’s arrhythmia and his ablation, listen to the That’s Gotta Hurt segment of Episode 41 of The Dr. David Geier Show . My discussion of Mardy Fish starts at the 32:46 point in the show.

Question: Which sport is played at the top level by Mardy Fish?
Answer: Tennis