World No. 8 Mardy Fish has been enjoying substantial success in the US Open Series this year. In fact, he did quite well last year also. So, it did not come out as a big surprise when he reached the semi-final of the 2011 Montreal Masters, on Friday after beating Stanislas Wawrinka. But, Mardy’s opponent in the semis is Janko Tipsarevic, who has certainly surprised many by playing fabulous tennis this week. If we look into the past records and current state of affairs, then Fish does look favourite, but he cannot afford to be bit complacent against Tipsarevic, who has improved a lot – in terms of his baseline play. The winner of this semi-final duel will meet either top seed Novak Djokovic or Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final on Sunday.
It has been a breakthrough season for Tipsarevic. Currently ranked as 24th in the world, Tipsarevic has a good 34-16 win-loss record this season. The Serbian beat Alejandro Falla, Fernando Verdasco, Ivan Dodig, and Tomas Berdych to his en-route to the semi-final. Recently, he reached the quarterfinal at Washington, but this is his first appearance in the ATP Masters Series semis.
On the other hand, Fish has been continuing to enjoy a good run at the U.S. Open Series. Fish made it the Top 10 last year by producing some remarkable results in Atlanta and Cincinnati and the way he has been playing, it seems that he will easily maintain his current No. 8 ranking. The American clinched the Atlanta title last month and he has beaten Feliciano Lopez, Ernests Gulbis, and Stanislas Wawrinka to come this far in Montreal.
In head-to-head, Fish leads with a 3-1, but both contenders have won a match against each other on hard-court. Last time they met in 2010 in Beijing, where Fish prevailed in straight sets 6-2, 7-6(5). Get ready to enjoy another sparkling performance of these two ATP stars.