By Richard Pagliaro

(March 27, 2010) MIAMI  — Andy Murray sat slumped in his court-side seat with a ice pack wrapped around his neck looking a little bit like a boxer who had the fight battered out of him after absorbing a series of brutal body blows.

The defending Sony Ericsson Open champion rose from his chair, but could do little to quell the on-court pain in the neck posed by Mardy Fish.

Vero Beach, Florida native Fish threatened to give Murray a case of whiplash in a head-turning performance that saw Fish slam 10 aces in shocking the third-seeded Scot, 6-4, 6-4, to reach the third round today.

"Playing a guy like Andy, I need to play one specific way," Fish said. "I needed to stay aggressive. I need to sort of keep the points relatively short not necessarily because I can't last, but because I'm just not going to win the points very often if they go 10 shots in a row. I certainly feel like I can do that point in and point out now. But today that's a pretty strategic way I was trying to play."

It was the second major upset in as many days. Olivier Rochus stunned second-seeded Novak Djokovic, 6-2, 6-7(7), 6-4 on the same stadium court yesterday.



The loss means Murray, who became the first British man to win the title in 25 years, will lose the ranking points he earned last year and likely fall to No. 4 when the new ATP Tour rankings are released in nine days. 

It was an aggressive, authoritative performance from Fish, who had failed to surpass the second round in seven of his prior eight appearances in Miami. In fact, the last time Fish won back-to-back matches in Miami was in 2003.

None of that seem to matter much to the 28-year-old Fish, who played more ambitious tennis in producing 33 winners compared to 12 for Murray.

The Australian Open finalist played passive tennis for much of the match displaying the  cautious defensive posture of a man trying not to lose points rather than actively trying to win them.

A timid Murray began to lose the depth on his groundstrokes, particularly his forehand, and Fish eagerly pounced on most short balls he saw.

Serving for match at 5-4, Fish lined a backhand into the net to fall to 15-30.

If Fish needed any reminder his moment of truth had arrived, the crowd provided surround sound rhythmic clapping.

Fish responded, stinging a serve off the back edge of the service line for 30-all. When Fish floated a forehand long, Murray had a break point to get back on serve.

Reaching up like a man whacking an apple off a tree branch with an axe, Fish hammered a 132 mph ace out wide for deuce.

A service winner down the T gave Fish his first match point, but he lined a tight forehand into net. Shaking that shanked shot off, Fish hammered another ace down the middle to earn his second match point.

A drop volley from Fish lured Murray forward where the racing Scot had a clear look at an open expanse of space crosscourt. Instead, Murray tried to cross Fish up by hitting his backhand down the line, but Fish read the play, wisely guarded the line and knocked off the volley winner to complete a 92 minute victory.

Life took an unexpected turn last year for the man who grew up in Florida and started the season on a 12-5 run, reaching the final in San Jose and winning his third career title in Delray Beach before an enthusiastic contingent of family and friends. But injuries stalled his momentum. He suffered a fractured rib in a five-set Davis Cup quarterfinal setback to Marin Cilic then underwent surgery on his left knee on September 28th.

Uncertan of his competitive future following the knee surgery, Fish and wife Stacey Gardner, an attorney and former "Deal Or No Deal" spokesmodel, didn't spend their spare time cleaning house during his recovery. Instead, they cleaned out the refrigerator, hired a personal chef and embarked on a high protein, low carb diet.

Then then 200+ pound Fish hoped to lose 10 to 15 pounds on the diet, but cutting out sugar, soft drinks, butter, cheese and some oil from his diet, Fish shed more than 25 pounds and now weighs in the "high 170s."

"It was really hard to do," Fish said. "I thought I only had 10 or 15 pounds to lose and 10 or 15 pounds came off in like a month and a half. We were not eating after 6:30. We were absolutely religious about it...I used to eat anything I wanted at any time just thinking I could always burn it off and some days I wouldn't do anything and not burn it off. Nowadays I don't do that."

Now, at age 28, Fish said the dramatic weight loss has helped him gain a sense of self confidence, renewed strength and the self belief that if he maintains his current conditioning he can play into his 30s.

"I feel great. I feel completely different," Fish said. "I feel healthy, strong and hopefully I've got four or five or six more years left in me. I'm 28, but I have had injuries in 2005 when I didn't play much at all and I missed half the year last year. I still feel like I've got some good years left. Hopefully, I can stay injury free and keep playing."