Analysis for Mathieu-Fish (Madrid)

Head-to-head record 0:1

Mardy Fish of United States will play Paul-Henri Mathieu in the opening round in Madrid Masters event. Fish turned professional in 2000 and spent his first few pro tennis years playing in the Challenger and Futures circuit. But he has always been considered to be a big talent and has been compared to his friend, Andy Roddick. In fact, he plays very similar tennis to his country-mate. His style of play is perfectly suited to rapid surfaces as his biggest weapons are big serve and powerful forehand shots. When talking about weaknesses, we should probably mention his movement but it is not a big surprise for American player. Anyway, his career improved significantly in 2003 when he won his first ATP title and finished the year as number 20 in the world. In 2005 he repeatedly injured his left wrist and had to undergo two surgeries which caused the subsequent ranking drop. Now he seems to be fully fit and he plays in a great shape having beaten several top players earlier this year. He his now ranked 38th in the world and is definitely capable to crack the top 20 again. He played the finals in New Haven where he was defeated by James Blake. After that performance, he was eliminated twice in the second round (by Robredo and Ljubicic) but both of these losses were unlucky. His opponent Paul Henri Mathieu is having the best season in his career. He made the semifinals of New Haven losing to James Blake. This result projected him in the world´s top 20 for the first time in his career. Then he added 3 first-round losses in a row but last week the big improvement came – he made finals in Moscow. Mathieu is known for being able to hit heavy groundstrokes from both wings and his topspin forehand is probably his biggest weapon. But he is an inconsistent player and we think that chances against Mardy Fish are 50:50 and odds above 2 are worth taking.