Mardy Fish beats Andy Murray

Andy Murray has lost in the quarter finals of the Cincinnati Masters 1000, finally falling to Mardy 'Suddenly I'm Playing Like a Grand Slam Champion' Fish 7-6, 1-6, 6-7.

There are no jokes, nor are there any puns today. The headline reflects the mood of the website, as we mourn yet another loss to Mardy 'The Second Coming of Stefan Edberg' Fish. Just watching today's match was tiring. However, Murray's body language throughout the contest left no room for us fans to speculate as to how he was coping with both the conditions and the cruel scheduling.

The Scot was suffering. In the grand scheme of things, this loss will likely benefit Murray. Having to endure another contest in the searing Cincy heat could have seriously dented his hopes of lifting the US Open trophy in 3 weeks time.

There appeared to be a bit of needle between the two at the start of the contest, as they exchanged words at the net. Fish came out serving well, rarely giving Murray an opportunity to build any momentum. The world number 4 was similarly stingy on serve, despite a characteristically horrific first serve percentage.

The pair traded comfortable holds until 5-5, at which point the Scot both created and squandered multiple opportunties to break. The eventual tiebreak and its outcome appeared to be equally inevitable, yet despite Murray's less than stellar record in breakers this year, he somehow managed to edge out the American to clinch the first set.

It was at this point that the tide turned, however. Upon reentering the arena after a toilet break, Murray was hit with, in his own words, "a wall of heat". He suddenly began to struggle physically and was attended to by the ATP trainer on several occasions throughout what turned out to be a lopsided second set, which the American took 6-1.

Murray dug his heels in at the start of the third set and attempted to make a contest of it. Despite shuffling around like a zombie between points, the world number 4 managed to force a tiebreak. At one point Murray looked like he might pull off an unlikely win, as he raced to a 4-2 lead. Unfortunately, Fish benefited from a poor line call and pulled back the mini break. Buoyed by this, the American rallied to win 4 of the next 5 points to beat Murray for the third time this year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brI1gJ_h-Yw