Mardy Fish was one set away from a possible showdown with Roger Federer in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open. But No. 11 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga ended that chance when he beat the highest-seeded American and No. 8 player in the world last night, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.
There were four Americans in the round of 16, but now the one who many felt had the best chance to get to the quarterfinals and beyond is the first one going home. The other three — Andy Roddick, John Isner and Donald Young — play today.
Fish was unable to put away the pesky Tsonga.
“You’ve got one set to go to go to the quarterfinals of this great event. It’s a great spot to be in,” Fish said. “We both knew it. He picked up his game better than I did.”
Fish didn’t even have any break-point chances in the fourth and fifth sets, and was bothered by his right thigh, calling for the trainer several times.
“I just had some hip and hamstring issues,” he said. “But that’s not why I lost. But it would have been nice to be able to run without pain.”
The three-hour, 45 minute match was not what Fish had hoped for.
“That’s only my fourth match. There haven’t been a ton of matches,” the 29-year-old Fish said. “It was unusually cold. For whatever reason, old age, I guess, my body didn’t check up like I had hoped.”
After making the quarterfinals in 2008, Fish missed the 2009 U.S. Open, and has now lost in the fourth round each of the past two years. His possible opponent in the quarterfinals was not lost on Fish.
“I had a great opportunity here, but I had to go through Tsonga, Federer, [Novak] Djokovic, [Rafael] Nadal [or] whoever’s on the other side just to win the tournament,” he said. “That’s a really tough draw. I had an easy first couple rounds, but I would trade those for right now.”
Tsonga heads to his first U.S. Open quarterfinals. He made the semifinals at Wimbledon earlier in the year, beating Federer in five sets in the quartefinals, the first time Federer ever lost in a Grand Slam after winning the first two sets.