Andy Roddick Upset by Mardy Fish in Straight Sets at ATC

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. -- Best friends off the court, Mardy Fish and Andy Roddick squared off on Saturday at the Atlanta Tennis Championships. They put the friendship aside for an hour and 41 minutes to battle for the opportunity to head to the finals on Sunday. In straight sets, Fish defeated Roddick, 7-6(5), 6-3.

It was apparent early that both Roddick and Fish were prepared for a long battle. They both held serve through the entire first set and long rallies were the norm.

What really stood out from Fish was how well he moved and his ability to dictate points with his aggressive style leading into the point.

"I thought his first serve was going pretty well and he attacked pretty well," said Roddick. "He just played better than I did tonight. He was taking that first ball and dictating with it. When someone is executing that and doing it well, it's going to be out of your control."

Fish jumped out quickly in the first-set tiebreaker, using some precision ground strokes and well-timed approach shots. He had three set point opportunities, two on his serve before he closed out the set.

"I felt like I might have played a little bit better in the first set, and I got outplayed in the second set," said Roddick.



Roddick's reasoning does hold water. Fish had a good amount of trouble with his first serve in the first set. To not be broken in a set where you only hit 35 percent of your first serves usually means there is something going wrong with your opponent. That wasn't the case on Saturday as Roddick feels this match was the best tennis he's played all week.

The reason Fish was able to win while serving so inaccurately was the placement of his second serve.

"Mardy was doing such a good job on his second serve," said Roddick. "It was short in the box, but he was getting action on it out wide."

The action out wide was the reason Fish was able to win 27 of 28 first-service points throughout the match.

Fish says it just feels good to finally beat Roddick after losing nine times in a row. More importantly it's great to feel healthy.

"Obviously, it's a great win for me," said Fish. "I feel [that] I'm healthy -- not too many nicks besides the ankle, and that feels way better than I thought. In the middle of the season to be playing this well, I feel lucky. I've put in a lot of hard work for that."

The turning point in the match was surely a missed overhead by Roddick. With a 3-2 lead in the second set, Fish tried a defensive lob but hung it up. What should have been an easy overhead winner turned into disaster for Roddick who later said he never saw the ball once he started his swing.

On the next point, Roddick pushed a forehand long and Fish had the first break point of the match for either player. Both players held serve for the rest of the match. While Fish wasted two match point opportunities at 5-3, he finished off his pal and will play for his second consecutive ATP tour title in a row.

On Sunday he'll face John Isner for the Atlanta Tennis Championships title.