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TMS - THE ERICSSON OPEN


March 23, 2000


Mardy Fish


MIAMI, FLORIDA

GREG SHARKO: Mardy made his ATP Tour debut today, posted his first win over Galo Blanco, retiring with a lower back strain. Mardy will move into the second round where he'll take on Tommy Haas of Germany. First question.

Q. Emotions with your first win?

MARDY FISH: I mean, I had a lot of family and friends there. I mean, I was all smiles after the match. Of course, my first points, my first win, my first pro tournament, of course I'm going to be riding Cloud 9 right now. Hopefully I can bring it down tonight and maybe get some rest and hope for the best tomorrow.

Q. You still live in Vero Beach?

MARDY FISH: I live in Boca Raton now. Practice with a guy named Stanford Boster, he's my coach, and two other guys that practice with us.

Q. When did you move to him?

MARDY FISH: I was with him, then went to Bollettieri, Saddle Brook, now I'm back with him about two weeks ago, three weeks ago.

Q. David Martin still there?

MARDY FISH: He's actually at Stanford right now.

Q. Who are the other guys?

MARDY FISH: Bo Hodge (phonetic) and Chris Martin. Chris is his brother.

Q. Match seemed to be real up-and-down for you, losing the second set at Love. What kind of adjustments did you make in the third set?

MARDY FISH: I mean, the crowd was behind me. The only thing I was trying to do was just hold through the first game, then maybe the crowd would get behind me and maybe I would get some momentum. He hurt his back, he took a break. He started serving so slow, but they were wide serves, tough to handle, so much different than what he was doing before. I mean, I couldn't get a groove on in the second set. I just got down like 4-Love, just trying to concentrate on like the third set. It worked.

Q. Where are you staying now?

MARDY FISH: I'm probably going to get a place. My sister trains out of the ITA. My mom lives with her. I'm living with her.

Q. In Delray?

MARDY FISH: Delray Beach.

Q. Seems like there's a lot of teenagers now making a mark on the men's side of the tour. Why do you think you guys are finally breaking through now?

MARDY FISH: I mean, it's such a good opportunity to get a wildcard here. I got it through my agency, which is IMG. Andy got it through the USTA. You just have to take advantage of your opportunities to get up into like the Top 100, then you're there. If you're in the Top 100, you're already in every tournament. When you get the opportunities, you have to capitalize as best you can.

Q. You walk out on the Stadium Court, probably the biggest court you ever played on. Nervous?

MARDY FISH: I'm sure I will be. Is that where I'm playing?

Q. I guess.

GREG SHARKO: You're talking about the match he played?

Q. The one coming up.

GREG SHARKO: Against Haas, it just depends.

MARDY FISH: If I play there, I've practiced there a bunch of times. I hope that it would just be like a normal practice match with my friends out there. Just try to take it as that, just get into things in the first set, hopefully settle down. I'm sure I'm going to be nervous, though. Of course, I am.

Q. What if it's a 7:30 match about 10,000 people?

MARDY FISH: I don't know. Once you're out there, you kind of forget about who is watching on TV and everything. Just the same way, I guess.

Q. A couple months back, you were on this site with the Sunshine Cup team. At that time did the Ericsson main draw seem far away?

MARDY FISH: I didn't really have my mind on that. I wasn't even thinking about it at all. I didn't know if I had an opportunity to play here or not. I was just trying to get through the Sunshine Cup. I lost a couple matches there, and I lost a disappointing match at the Orange Bowl in the quarters. No, it wasn't really like realistic for me then.

Q. Do you know Andy Roddick well?

MARDY FISH: I used to live with him. I trained in Boca for like eight months before I went to Bollettieri's. I lived at his house, so I know him very well.

Q. Was Bollettieri's just too big for you?

MARDY FISH: I needed like a personal coach, someone that would practice with me, kind of be there at every practice, and when I went away at tournaments. I couldn't find that there, nor at Saddle Brook. I had to go back to Stan. I didn't have to, but he's the best.

End of FastScripts….

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