Mardy Fish is relishing the chance to make his ATP World Tour Finals debut starting against Rafael Nadal on Sunday.
You can watch and bet on the ATP World Tour Finals live for free at bet365 > live tennis
Fish will be competing at the end of season extravaganza for the first time after qualifying in eighth place in the Race and the American is feeling bullish about his chances after the best season of his career.
"I’m sort of taking the approach of being excited to be a part of this thing," Fish said. "Obviously, there are no ‘gimmes’. Roger’s won the tournament five times; he’s won more times than I can even imagine getting in. So there’s zero pressure playing anyone. There are good match-ups around the board for some guys. Some of these top guys you play better than others. I’ve had good results against Top 10 players, so it’s not out of the realm of possibilities to get to the semis and beyond for me."
It's going to be trial by fire for Fish who's been drawn in Group B along with Nadal, Roger Federer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. However he will feel he has a decent shot against the Spaniard on Sunday. Nadal has been struggling with injury this autumn and will be competing for the first time since the Shanghai Masters at the start of October.
"I beat Rafa in Cincinnati for the first time and actually played him pretty good in Tokyo as well," Fish reminded reporters. "I’ve picked everyone’s brain that has played this event. Obviously I spoke to Andy (Fish is close friends with Roddick) quite a bit about the World Tour Finals last year here in London and everyone just speaks so highly about it; it just seems like such a cool thing. So I’m obviously just staying in the moment and just looking forward to playing."
