Fifth seed Carlos Moya was surprisingly defeated by American Mardy Fish in a thrilling five set match at the Australian Open today. It is the second successive tournament in which 21-year-old Fish has beaten the former French Open winner after a second-round triumph at the adidas International in Sydney last week.
Fish hauled Moya back from the brink of a two-set lead, won a tie-break and then moved 2-1 up. Moya broke him in the final game of the fourth set before Fish completed his 3-6 7-6 (10/8) 6-4 4-6 6-2 win. Others might have been rattled after losing the fourth set, but the 21-year-old was supremely confident.
"I felt in the fourth set I was in total control, having a double break point at 3-3. I was holding serve very easily up to the 4-5 game," said Fish. "Even though I lost that set I still felt I was playing better tennis and felt like I should have been ahead even though I lost that one game."
The 6ft 2ins American, whose father is a professional tennis coach, served 17 aces in a match which lasted one minute under three hours and now faces South Africa's Wayne Ferreira in the next round after he eased past Michel Kratochvil 6-2 6-2 7-5.
There were no real surprises in the women's draw with Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport progressing. Williams beat qualifier Ansley Cargill 6-3 6-0 in 52 minutes with Davenport squeezing past Iroda Tulyaganova of Uzbekistan 6-7 (7/9) 6-4 7-5.
Filed by Johnny Proby
