By Robert Martin                                             Photo Credit: Tony Chang

(August 28, 2011) With his best season in progress, World No. 8 Mardy Fish talks about some of the changes to be seen around the US Open tournament that starts on Monday. He covers his own newfound dedication and understanding of personal fitness as well as discussing an important change to the conditions and how it relates to his chances in New York.

It has been a season of many firsts for Fish, including his first trip to the third round at Roland Garros, first quarterfinal at Wimbledon, and first time to reach the top 10 in the rankings. Now he heads into the US Open as the top-ranked American for the first time in addition to hoping to improve on his previous best showing in 2008 when he lost in the quarterfinals to the current World. No. 2 Rafael Nadal.

So when asked about what he has changed this year in hopes of bettering his performance, he actually said that he added on a bit of weight, saying, "Last year I came in, I was extremely fit at the time, but I was almost too ‑‑ I was right around 170 pounds. You know, I was almost too skinny."

Even more important is a new outlook on results, which Fish describes best, "I've got a great grasp on how to leave last weeks' tournaments in last week, you know, leaving Montreal in Montreal and trying to separate myself from that and go to Cincinnati and start over again and hopefully leave Cincinnati there and start over here and sort of forget all the matches I've played in, the mental side of it, the mental sort of fatigue you can get from playing quite a few matches to, you know, starting over and trying to get as fresh as possible."

It's been discussed at length how Fish possesses a more complete game than many of his fellow Americans, looking for opportunities to move into the net and mix in serve and volley tactics at times. With the US Open traditionally featuring one of the faster courts in tennis, Fish was asked about his opinion on the conditions this year and he appeared to have noticed a major change in the speed.

Fish was quoted, "Now with it being, you know, much slower out here this year, it's sort of fit right in with Australia. There's really not ‑‑ there is a lot of really slow Grand Slams now surface‑wise. Cincinnati and Montreal were extremely fast; Montreal was an extremely fast surface."

Hurricane Irene was also playing a part in the impression of the conditions due to the high level of humidity in the area. Fish is hopeful to see some sunlight on Monday stating, "But it's playing very strange right now.  Hopefully when Monday comes around and the heat comes back a little bit and you get the humidity out of there just a little bit, maybe it will play a little bit differently."