The Rolex courtside clock at the Paris Masters could have been supplemented by a stopwatch today, as Mardy Fish struck shots with the decisive purpose of a speed-chess player in timing Florian Mayer right out of the tournament. A near flawless Fish outclassed and overwhelmed Mayer, 6-1, 6-2, in a 56-minute mismatch devoid of drama.
The No. 7 seed took a significant step toward securing a spot in the year-end ATP World Tour Finals with this victory. The 29-year-old American will make his season-ending debut in London unless Janko Tipsarevic or Gilles Simon, Fish's potential round-of-16 opponent, go on to win the Paris title.
It's a pleasure to watch Fish when he's in-form because he can display the full shot spectrum—he served and volleyed effectively in winning nine of 11 trips to the net, smacked slap-shot backhand returns down the line and showed both force and finesse with smashes and drop shots—and he does it all without dawdling. There's no pre-point primping, no wasting time wandering around the back of the court, no French kissing the towel after every point—when Fish is on his game he plays with the alacrity of an auctioneer: Give him the ball and get the show going.
Bending low to dig out a difficult forehand volley he pushed deep into the corner to pressure Mayer, Fish slammed down a smash for an early break point. Firing a forehand return that snaked across Mayer's shoe laces, Fish broke for a 3-1 lead. That initial service break was part of a seven-game spree that saw Fish break open the match in seizing a 6-1, 2-0 cushion.
Both men have been hampered by left hamstring injuries recently. Mayer has produced a fine autumn run, capturing his first career singles title in Bucharest in September, beating Rafael Nadal to reach the Shanghai quarterfinals in October and making the quarterfinals of Basel last week, but the 22nd-ranked German had no answers for Fish today.
Mayer exhibits a quirky stroke-production style with a lot of moving parts on his serve and forehand, which created timing issues today. Fish flattens out the ball sharply, particularly off his bold backhand—his best shot—and had success driving his backhand down the line, directly into the Mayer forehand. Its expansive, loopy takeback and lasso follow-through means Mayer can be rushed into errors on that side. Playing a much cleaner match, Fish finished with 21 winners against nine errors, while Mayer hit 10 winners and 17 errors.
When Fish's first-serve is clicking as it was today—he won a staggering 92 percent (23 of 25) first-serve points—he can impose an up-tempo, oppressive style of play that left Mayer looking as lost as a stranded tourist at Champs-Élysées during rush hour. Mayer closed to 2-3 in the second set, but when he missed a forehand that could have given him a 0-30 lead on Fish's serve, he plastered his Prestige frame to the court in frustration.
Fish ran off 12 of the final 13 points to send Mayer packing and move closer toward landing a London spot.
—Richard Pagliaro