Roger Federer paid tribute to Mardy Fish's performance after being swept aside 6-3 6-2 by the unseeded American in the Pacific Life Open semi-finals on Saturday. The Swiss world number one, who had not dropped a set in his three previous matches at Indian Well Tennis Garden, was outplayed by a player ranked 98th in a match lasting just over an hour.
"He played great today," Federer, 26, told reporters after losing to Fish for the first time in six meetings. "I can only congratulate him. Fantastic. "The danger of best-of-three matches is it can be over in no time. We all know that. He was just trying to go for everything and it sort of worked.
"He didn't even play particularly bad on the break points, every time he read the right side on the serve and he kept the ball in play. When he wanted to attack, everything worked. He would never miss when I needed maybe a miss once in a while. "So that was just impressive by his side and I couldn't do much to control it."
Federer, a winner of 12 grand slam titles and three Pacific Life Opens, was broken once in the opening set and twice in the second to lose his third match out of eight this year. However, he felt his defeat was not as big a surprise as reflected by Fish's world ranking. "It's not like he's been 98 for the first time in his life and he just made a career breakthrough breaking into the top 100," he said.
"The guy has been top 20 before and he's had big matches before. He should have won Cincinnati a few years back beating Andy (Roddick) before he became No 1. We know how good Mardy can be. Let's not talk about 98. We know he's way better than that."
Overall, Federer was satisfied with his run to the semi-finals at Indian Wells, the first Masters Series event of the season, after suffering from a viral problem in his first two tournaments of the year.
The Swiss lost to eventual winner Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open semi-finals in January before being beaten in the first round in Dubai by Briton Andy Murray.
"I'm happy with this week," Federer said. "Today it's hard to judge because Mardy took everything on the rise. There weren't many rallies out there so it's hard to judge. Federer gained a bye into the last four when Germany's Tommy Haas withdrew from their quarter-final on Friday because of a sinus infection.
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