Fish Provides a Heroic Effort in Bogota

by Parsa Samii, GEM Tennis (parsa@gemtennis.com)

This past weekend down in Bogota, Columbia, the US Davis Cup team faced tough challenges in their Davis Cup playoff match to remain in the ‘World Group.’ Bogota is over 8,000 feet about sea level and the game changes significantly in those conditions. Having played several tournaments in altitude, I can personally tell you that the ball travels much quicker through the air. It is almost like you have to tap the ball because the response of the ball off of the racquet is a very different feeling compared to tennis at lower elevations. Because of the thinner air and less available oxygen than at sea level, fitness and preparation play an integral part of tennis at a high elevation as well. However, altitude wasn’t the US team’s only challenge.

The Columbian team and its fans all rose to the occasion to make the match have plenty of twists and turns. In the end, it was the efforts of Mardy Fish and his new found conditioning that captured the headlines. On Friday, Fish defeated Alejandro Falla 4-6 , 6-1, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. Falla is a very capable player who’s biggest claim to fame was back at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships when he served for the match against Roger Federer in the first round. On Saturday, Fish teamed with John Isner to defeat the Columbian duo of R.Farah / C.Salamanca in four tight sets, 6-4, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3 and on Sunday with the entire match on the line, Fish defeated Santiago Giraldo in 5 dramatic sets, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 4-6, 8-6. Giraldo served for the match at 6-5 in the fifth set, but Fish continued to believe and plug along as he closed the match by winning the final three games.

Overall, the tennis this weekend wasn’t fantastic, but this is what Davis Cup is all about. The big American team went to Bogota and had to compete and win in THEIR environment. In sports, the home field advantage usually poses a great advantage and in Davis Cup it is no different. In most countries around the world, Davis Cup is a huge event and the people take it very seriously. This was a grand effort by Mardy Fish to overcome every obstacle in his path to push the American team back into the World group for 2011.

This tie also marked the end of Patrick McEnroe’s captaincy of the US Team after a terrific 10 year run. What a way to go!