A Wonder Called Fish

A very vocal contingent of Vero Beach residents chanted, “Mardy! Mardy! Mardy!” after our local hero ripped a return past his opponent and friend, Andy Roddick, to take the first set tie-breaker in the Delray Beach ATP tournament on March 3. Mardy went on to the finals that week, his first-ever ATP final and another example of his fine play throughout the start of the 2003 tennis season. His ranking has improved by 49 slots in just three months. Patrick McEnroe, captain of the Davis Cup team, tells us, “People see players like (Taylor) Dent and Fish suddenly winning matches and think they came out of nowhere. They’ve really been working hard for three years. It’s very difficult to move from 200 to 100 and even harder to go from 100 to 50 or 30 or 20. The competition is tougher, the other players get to know your strengths and weaknesses. It’s a constant challenge.”

Becoming a tennis professional “is a long process,” says McEnroe. “A year ago, Mardy was a different player. It’s fun to see these guys really working hard and getting better.”

Read the entire article in the Summer 2003 issue