Mardy Fish goes for his second straight ATP title at the Farmers Classic in Los Angeles when he plays Ernests Gulbis in tonight's final.
Fish had a far tougher semi-final battle in Atlanta against the precocious 19 year old Ryan Harrison, eventually seeing him off 6-0, 4-6, 7-6(3). Fish breezed through the first set and afterwards described it as the best he's played for some time.
“That’s probably the cleanest set of tennis I’ve played in a long time,” he said. “It’s never going to be like that for two sets. I was playing at an extremely high level. You expect him to bounce."
Harrison is a gutsy competitor and he hit back as everyone knew he would and made the match a real contest. The final set could have gone either way but Fish's huge serve and wealth of experience helped him at the death.
Gulbis continued his march with a routine 6-2, 7-6 win over Alex Bogomolov. The Latvian was last in a final back at the start of 2010 when he won Delray Beach but he's been playing with uncharacteristic focus this week and his quarter-final win over Juan Martin Del Potro was easily the best performance of his season.
They have never played before. Fish has far more experience of this kind of stage than Gulbis but the Latvian has been playing without fear this week and at his very best, he does possess more weapons than the American. Fish's serve is a formidable shot but Gulbis has the ability to dictate and boss from the back of the courts and it will be interesting to see how Fish attempts to counteract his power.
Prediction: Gulbis to pull off the upset.
