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[man] This tape is about mental toughness.
Achieving mental toughness is no easy task,
but if you follow the steps outlined on this tape,
you'll get real results.
Number one, 100% fighting effort.
That means no whining, no complaining, no escape routes.
[Mardy] I'm a couple hours away from the biggest match of my career.
The biggest match of my life.
I was just curled up in a ball,
trying desperately to figure out a way to just stop having these thoughts.
[man] One hundred percent fighting effort
And I'm about to play the greatest player of all time…
to get into the quarterfinals of the US Open.
[man] That means no whining, no complaining, no escape routes.
[Mardy] This match, I had physically and mentally and emotionally trained
for my entire life.
And now, in the car ride to Arthur Ashe Stadium,
my mind is a million places.
All of a sudden, just… boom!
[atmospheric music plays]
The thoughts just came flooding in,
more and more and more.
[echoing] Just nonstop thoughts.
And my heart is just racing.
Big, deep breaths.
[deep breaths]
[man] No complaining. No escape routes.
[Mardy] I'm Googling "what is anxiety disorder,"
"panic disorder," "mental health."
I'm listening to talks on YouTube of how to deal with it, how to beat it,
thinking, "How am I gonna get through this?"
[deep breathing]
I mean, just basically, I'm… I'm desperate.
I didn't know what to do.
[unsettling music builds]
[silence]
["Your Sweet Love" by Lee Hazlewood plays]
♪ Stranger's arms ♪
♪ Reach out to me ♪
♪ 'Cause they know ♪
♪ I'm so lonely ♪
♪ Then my mind ♪
♪ Goes back to you ♪
♪ And your sweet love ♪
♪ Sees me through ♪
[deep breaths]
[newsman] Tennis in this country seems to be on the decline.
Now some people are trying to do something about that.
[newswoman] The United States Tennis Association
is setting up a nationwide program
to develop and support talented players through regional tennis centers.
We're developing a national training center
where we would take our top young players,
give them a scholarship,
and we will have some more champions.
This is our map, which shows all of the area training centers
that we have around the United States.
We're gonna take the best thousand kids, and the other 500 of you, you are out.
Now we are gonna leave 200. The rest of you are out.
Now we have ten, and out of these ten, we must develop a champion.
[tense string music playing]
Everything about American sports is the best
and about immediate gratification, and, you know, tennis was no different.
At that point, American tennis was sort of on the back nine.
[newswoman] Tennis officials say America's best are getting older.
[newsman] And many around men's tennis are worried about its future.
[Kevin] So, enter the USTA, who really felt the pressure
and invested tremendous resources building the next top American.
[newsman] There are endless demands from corporate sponsors,
the media, and fans for the new hope of US tennis.
So, even at the academy level, having an American player
who potentially could play at the next level was a commodity.
But let's just be frank.
When I first watched Mardy,
there was nothing that you would say,
"This guy's a prodigy. This guy's gonna be world class."
There was the part that was flat-footed.
There was the part that you'd go, "That forehand's pretty terrible."
But man, his mind intrigued me.
Mardy would pull you wide. The short ball would come.
He'd snap this cross-court angle, and you'd be like, "Wow, shit. That's…
That's a big shot."
So I went to the USTA and said, "I want Mardy at Saddlebrook."
[gentle music playing]
[Sally] Saddlebrook was a big turning point.
A lot of tears.
I went to orientation there and cried all the way home,
uh, when we left him.
We enjoyed having him around the house. All of a sudden, you know, he's gone.
[Sally] And I never imagined him leaving at 15.
[Mardy] I lived in a small town. Vero Beach, Florida.
So I remember the first time that I moved in
was a real eye-opening experience.
Real pros were there.
Jim Courier trained there.
Pete Sampras trained there at the time.
And I got to watch them train and really feel like a tennis player.
[Kevin] Here at Saddlebrook,
we're experts at developing some of the best players in the world.
Pete Sampras, Martina Hingis,
Andy Roddick, Jennifer Capriati.
The US tennis elite.
We really believe mental toughness is one of the biggest defining things
about them as… as competitors.
[man] Within the player development program,
we'll really work on developing their physical skills,
their emotional skills, their mental skills,
so that they can become a successful professional
and do well in Grand Slams and Davis Cup.
[Kevin] So we had to instill that mental discipline early on.
It was something that was never gonna be instinctual with a child.
[Mardy] You'd get up in the morning.
There are times when you'd hit even before school.
I don't know how hard the school was, but we played a lot of tennis.
[Kevin] We really believe in practice makes permanent,
and you have to practice perfectly.
[Mardy] And then we'd work out in the gym.
Go to school for a few hours.
You're back on the tennis courts by one o'clock.
Boom. Groundhog Day the next day.
And then twice a week, we'd go into a conference room,
and we'd watch a mental toughness video of Jim Courier and Pete Sampras.
[man] Achieving mental toughness is no easy task.
But if you follow the steps outlined on this tape,
you'll get real results.
I learned at that age the philosophy of, "Put your head down."
"You go about your business and not show them any weakness at all."
That means no whining, no complaining,
no escape routes.
[man 2] Can you create a champion?
Mold them into the next Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan?
[newsman] At the Saddlebrook Resort in Florida,
a group of promising kids live and train away from home.
[newswoman] But only a handful will make it as professionals.
It is simply and brutally the survival of the physically strongest
and the mentally toughest.
[keyboard clacking]
It was pretty jaw-dropping to see how tough a lot of these players were.
But Andy Roddick…
This kid was different.
[grunts]
His competitiveness was different than any of the kids that you played.
Andy had this fire to him.
Very intense, ruthless on the court,
to the point where I would give in a little bit.
He wanted to win almost too bad.
[Andy] A win, I've got a prediction.
[boy 2] What is it?
I'll win today.
That is one of, if not the main reasons why he had his hall of fame career.
[interviewer] Andy, what would you like to achieve in tennis?
Just to be the best player I can work to be.
[interviewer] Who'd you like to be like? Andre Agassi? Pete Sampras?
[Andy] Probably Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.
When Andy ended up at the academy,
there was a buzz about this kid.
He was really something extraordinarily different.
People would go by on the tennis court,
and everybody would stop and watch Andy serve.
I was practicing with Mardy one day, and I was pissed off in practice.
I walked up, did a little half-motion off of two feet.
I just hit it as hard as I could,
um, and it went in,
and then I just did that for the next 15 years.
[Kevin] When Andy and Mardy left the academy,
Andy was on a track to be a world-class player.
[inaudible]
So Mardy was really meant to serve Andy's needs.
The Roddicks knew that Andy needed peers to practice with.
They also knew that it was important for Andy
to have friends and to enjoy it,
and Mardy fit that bill.
[camera clicks]
He was the guy that could keep up with him, could have fun with him,
but, um, ultimately, you know, was that kid to practice with.
[wind chimes tinkling]
[Mardy] When I left, I was 16 years old,
and the Roddicks were nice enough to say, "You can live with us."
Didn't know them personally at the time,
but I moved in, and I had a bedroom across the hall.
I think he was a bit more of a laid-back beach kid,
and then he comes into our house, and he's going, "What is going on?"
But my dad said, "Hey, listen. You can stay here. It's a choice."
"But if you are here, then I think we operate a certain way."
My dad was a tough man, and I say that in a great way.
You know, army guy. There was no BS.
His father would wake me up at, like, five o'clock in the morning
and go, "Mardy, it's time to stretch."
And I'm like, "It's five o'clock, Mr. Roddick."
"I can't do it. I'm too tired."
"Get up. It's time to stretch."
It was such an intense level of training and competitiveness.
Now my competition was across the hallway.
If he was playing better, it was in my face at dinner.
[Mardy] We competed at everything,
whether it was a video game,
basketball,
girls.
We weren't best friends. We were brothers.
So we could yell at each other, almost come to fistfights,
and the next day, it would be super fun good times.
It was great for me to have talent like Mardy close.
I think ultimately it was good for the both of us.
[Mardy] The Roddicks took me from a top player in the country
to a top player in the world.
[presenter] Second in the nation is not too shabby.
Mardy Fish.
[cheering and applause]
[Kevin] When Andy and Mardy turned pro,
the expectation for an American to be good early was…
it was important.
The US tennis fan was so spoiled for so many years.
Sampras, Agassi, Courier, Connors, McEnroe.
I mean, you went through decades of American dominance in tennis.
[cameras clicking]
[Andy] Growing up, I caught the tail-end of the Connors and McEnroe generation.
I was at the '91 US Open.
I remember sneaking into the stadium.
The atmosphere was insane to me.
[cameras clicking]
Connors was going nuts and just being a rock star.
[crowd cheering]
That night had such a huge impact on me.
It changed my life and my aspirations.
[crowd cheering]
[commentator] Wow!
[Mardy] The American tennis that came before Roddick and I
was an era that we'll never see again.
[cheering]
I grew up watching these guys my whole life.
[crowd cheering]
Americans competing Slam after Slam for titles.
[crowd cheering]
We were in the golden age.
[crowd cheering]
I saw Chang win in '89.
[grunts]
I was glued to the TV when Andre won his first Slam.
[crowd cheering]
For my ninth birthday, my mom took me to see Pete win the '90 US Open.
[cheering and applause]
Jim Courier won four Slams in '91-'92.
[laughs]
So you had this very special era of tennis,
a 20-year history of having the best players in the world.
Now you had Andy, Mardy.
That was what they were expected to be and to do.
[Andy] Then all of a sudden, at 17, 18,
this legendary generation was really pushing me and Mardy.
…on Pete Sampras's jet.
[Mardy] There was this huge push coming from the great champions
for us to carry this legacy.
[man] Jesus Christ! What the hell is going on?
[Mardy] Meanwhile, my buddies are seniors in high school.
[man] Got you, man!
[Mardy] So it was a really interesting way to grow up.
[Andy] We certainly felt that responsibility.
Over there and snap it.
[Andy] We knew the history of it.
We were there. We got to see it all.
[announcer] Please welcome the captain of the US Davis Cup team,
John McEnroe!
[crowd cheering]
[announcer] Andre Agassi!
[crowd cheering]
Pete Sampras!
[crowd cheering]
[cheering and applause]
[silence]
[Mardy] 2003, I end up making my first final in Cincinnati,
which is a big Masters Series event right before the US Open.
Big points, big prize money on the line.
There's tens of thousands of people watching in the stands and on TV.
Just turned 21 years old.
This match could change my life forever.
And I played Andy.
[theme music plays]
[host] Until now, comparisons to the great American champions
of the past two decades have fallen short.
But Andy Roddick versus Mardy Fish in an all-American final next,
live on ESPN2.
[crowd cheering]
[Andy] Four years ago, we were playing at our coach's apartment complex.
Now we're playing for a lot of prestige at this huge tournament in Cincinnati,
which we had grown up watching.
[commentator] Mardy Fish spent about a year in the Roddick house
down there in South Florida.
You know, we've dreamt about playing each other, um,
you know, in a big tournament like this, uh, ever since we lived with each other.
[crowd cheering]
[commentator] Mardy has watched Andy Roddick's rise,
and he said yesterday, "I always thought it was a matter of time
before I hopefully will do the same."
[crowd cheers]
[commentator] Mardy Fish has come out
and has proven that he can match Andy Roddick.
He's not intimidated by Roddick at all.
Andy knew my game better than any player did,
and I knew Andy's game better than any player did.
And so I used it to my advantage.
-[crowd cheers] -[commentator] Wow, wow, wow!
There's no mistake on that one.
[commentator 2] Against all odds, Mardy Fish has won the first set
of this championship match at the Masters Series.
[Mardy] Just one of those matches
with two heavyweights going back and forth.
[crowd exclaiming]
[commentator] Oh!
Andy Roddick wins the second set. [laughs]
What a match!
He was so competitive. It was so mentally tough.
[yells]
[Mardy] But I wasn't gonna give in.
-[crowd cheers] -[commentator] Match point for Mardy Fish.
All of a sudden, I have match point. I'm like, "Oh shit, I have match point."
[crowd cheering]
[commentator] Biggest moment of Mardy Fish's life.
[Mardy] He's serving. He's got the fastest serve of all time.
I wonder what he's gonna do.
Late in the third set, it was a chess match.
Mardy knew I wanted to get to his forehand side
because I've hit that serve against him a thousand times.
I'm going, "He's gonna sell out forehand. I know he is."
He knows that my forehand's worse,
so he's probably gonna serve to my forehand.
But he knows I know that, so he's probably gonna go to my backhand.
No, he's definitely not gonna go to my backhand.
Wait a minute.
He must know that I know that.
-[Mardy] Oh! -[commentator] Are you kidding?
Not a lot of speed, 86 miles an hour.
Right in the wheelhouse of Mardy Fish.
Shit. I knew he went kick serve to my backhand.
That would've been the number one play for me.
But I was lucky enough to get another match point.
[crowd cheers]
[commentator] This is the time for intense concentration
and not let your head get involved.
[Mardy] He's bouncing the ball, and I'm like, "This is your chance."
"He's definitely not gonna go to my backhand again,
so he's gotta go bomb serve to my forehand."
"But wait, he knows that I know that he knew what I knew…"
"…my backhand. No, he's definitely not gonna go to my backhand."
"He's probably gonna serve…"
[hits ball]
No fucking way.
Kick serve out wide, again.
[commentator] Oh! [chuckles]
[crowd cheering]
[inaudible]
[Mardy] And I overthought it,
and I missed it.
[Andy] I remember him giving me a little look after I hit it, like,
"We might be the only people that realize the significance
of what you tried to pull there."
[Mardy] I end up losing the match seven-six in the third.
My first massive heartbreak kind of loss.
[crowd cheering]
And it still hurts.
[crowd cheering]
First and foremost, I'd like to congratulate Mardy.
I mean, it's hard to try to kick someone's ass who you like so much.
[crowd laughing and cheering]
[Kevin] That to me was that match, defining.
Andy was now the next top American player.
And then… [whoosh]
you know, became number one player in the world.
[commentator] Talking about the US Open,
a year ago, we're talking about Andy Roddick,
but now we're talking about him being seeded, Patrick,
or winning the whole thing. How things have changed for Andy Roddick.
I took the responsibility and the weight, the expectation seriously.
I was fine-tuned, I was prepared, I was practiced.
[crowd cheering]
Purely from a, you know, little kid dreaming, growing up,
there'd be something very special about getting to play at the US Open.
You work towards it and react one way or the other.
You freeze up or you go get it, and that day, I got it.
[commentator] Roddick, one serve away.
[announcer] Game, set, match.
[crowd cheering]
[commentator] I don't believe it.
[crowd cheering]
Before that, I was a tennis player. After, it was different, more than tennis.
[inaudible]
[applause]
I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am to host SNL.
[fans cheering]
-[woman] Andy! -Andy, sign your name here!
No more "What's it feel like to be the future of American tennis" crap.
[laughter]
No more.
Andy's success is amazing and awesome.
This guy's your friend and your brother,
and you've been rooting for him your whole life.
[Andy speaking indistinctly]
[crowd exclaims and laughs]
[Andy] You're such an ass!
Oh! [laughs]
-Yeah, so what was the question? -[laughter]
There wasn't a jealousy towards it,
but there was a, "Man, I wish I could have done that."
[Kevin] Andy's US Open win…
[applause]
…it was amazing.
We finally have an American on track to win multiple Grand Slam titles.
[applause]
[producer] So why did the bubble burst for American tennis?
I think the bubble was named Federer, you know?
[tense music plays]
He figured out a way to win every time.
Every single time.
[gentle music playing]
[Andy] Roger's the best defensive and best offensive player in the world
at the same time.
How do you… How do you attack that?
Roger had this aura of invincibility about him…
where you just could never breathe, 'cause he could turn it like that.
Boom. Point's over.
-[yells] -[camera clicks]
He's the most-liked athlete, universally, in the world.
[applause]
You speak 17 languages, and your hair looks amazing,
and it's fantastic, and you don't sweat.
[grunts]
[Andy] I'm not jealous of his success.
[crowd cheers]
[commentator speaking Italian]
[Andy] I'm jealous of the ease at which he's able to navigate
being the greatest of all time.
[Mardy] We played in the final of 2004 in Halle.
Roger went up 6-0, 3-0 in, like, 25 minutes.
-[applause] -I'm like, "Unbelievable."
"This guy's gonna beat me 6-0, 6-0 in the finals of a tournament."
I think he probably felt bad for all of the people
that had paid money to come watch,
and I'm still, to this day, convinced
that he prolonged the match a little bit longer so it was 6-0, 6-3.
He made it, like, an hour.
-[announcer speaking indistinctly] -[cheering and applause]
[Mardy] And then, when it couldn't get any worse,
in 2005,
a guy named Nadal came around.
[commentator] Amazing!
[cheers]
[Mardy] And then 2007, a guy named Novak Djokovic.
[commentator] Oh my goodness! Are you kidding me?
[Mardy] And I'm like, "Whoa."
"The top three greatest players of all time in the exact same generation."
[Andy] It became this gargantuan effort,
trying to beat the guys that had become the Mount Rushmore of the game.
[Andy] And all the while taking criticisms.
[dramatic music playing]
But my dad instilled that army mentality where if you take it on the chin,
you get up, and you do it again.
I had to get up a lot.
[crowd cheering]
King of the world.
[man] I'm the king of the world!
["Stay in Line" by Trey Gruber plays]
[Mardy] Looking back, this point in my career,
I was in a really good place emotionally and mentally.
I felt like I was so lucky to play professional tennis.
Just an absolute dream.
-♪ Oh, stay in line ♪ -[inaudible]
♪ Oh, stay in line ♪
[Mardy] I went to Asia. I went to Singapore.
I went to Belgium. I went to, you know, France, uh…
All over. You know, all over the… All over the world.
♪ Reckon what you need, you'll find ♪
[Mardy] I loved hanging out with friends
and be able to eat what I wanted and drink what I wanted.
[laughs]
I think we're gonna go check out the local nightlife,
so we'll see you guys tomorrow.
[laughs]
It was during this time I met my wife,
who I call an angel.
He was never the cocky kind of athlete.
He wasn't boastful.
He was, like, a fun, goofy guy.
Melted my heart, actually.
It was a very happy time for everybody.
Watching Mardy with my love for the game,
it was fun.
[laughing] Really fun.
I was as amazed as anybody was.
He's just a normal guy.
You used to say, "What's Mardy doing out there…"
-What's Mardy doing out there? -"…on a stadium court?"
-[crowd cheering] -♪ Lately I've been a stranger ♪
[commentator] Open court. Roddick's in.
And there it is.
[crowd cheering]
[interviewer] What are your goals for the rest of the year?
I think the ultimate goal is to maybe beat Andy.
-[laughs] -[crowd laughs and cheers]
[interviewer] Oh, that's too good.
[Mardy] Honestly, just sort of a normal career,
and I didn't have success.
[commentator] Mardy's the guy a lot of people have been waiting for him
to break through.
[Jim] He's been out playing now for a couple of years…
It's been a big struggle for him…
…and try and be up there near where Andy Roddick is.
People that are considered the greatest of all time,
they have this thing, "We'll rip your head off."
"We'll tear you apart. We'll stomp on you on our way to victory."
The freaking ball was right on the line!
At that point in his career, I don't know that Mardy was prepared to do that.
It wasn't because I didn't want it.
I legitimately didn't understand it. I didn't get it.
[Andy] I can normally tell at 17 or 18 whether a kid gets it.
It doesn't ever correct itself. Never corrects itself.
Mardy's one of the only guys I've ever seen
who figured it out and corrected it.
[loud droning]
[tense music playing]
[Mardy] So, 2009, I got a hyperbaric chamber,
which pumps oxygen into your body and makes things heal faster,
and I basically slept in there, would take naps in there,
just be in it nonstop.
And I legitimately had this "Aha" look-in-the-mirror moment where I'm like,
"I'm 28 years old,
at the back end of my career,
and I'm not gonna get everything out of my career
that I could've and should've."
I desperately wanted to make sure that when I was done playing,
I can put my head on my pillow every night
knowing that I tried everything I could possibly do.
So I said to myself,
"Let's do this. Let's really fucking do this."
[Christian] I worked for the USTA for a little over ten years.
I remember getting that call from Mardy.
He wanted to find out
if he really dedicated himself 100% the way Andy did,
if he would be as successful.
And that's when he convinced me to move out to LA,
live with him and Stacey,
and see if we could make him better.
[Stacey] He sat down with myself and his trainer, Christian, and said
he had so much more that he wanted to accomplish.
[Mardy] I told Christian the ultimate goal of mine
is getting to London,
making the World Tour Final.
[Christian] The year-end finals are the crème de la crème.
Only the eight best players in the world get invited to the year-end finals.
So my goal was to get Mardy as fit as possible.
And first was diet, to lose the weight.
I was 203 pounds.
So I set out to lose 12 pounds.
I cut out alcohol, pizza, desserts, fries.
I was starving every day.
[Christian] So next we started to train as hard as we could
all day, every day.
[Mardy] When I got back on the court,
I told my coach, "Give me a racket."
"Put one ball on this side, the next ball on the other side,
the next ball on that side, and let's just do that for hours and hours."
If you want to beat Roger and Rafa and Novak,
you gotta have the leg strength of a football player,
the lungs of a marathon runner,
and on top of that, an unbelievable level of focus.
So we would do dynamic warm-up exercises,
movement drills, medicine ball throws,
side-to-side, cross-training, suicides.
[Mardy] Now I'm getting fit. I'm not getting tired.
I can train for hours.
I can run forever,
and it becomes like a religion, like a lifestyle.
"I'm gonna play two sets with you, two sets with you."
"In the afternoon, I'll play two sets with you. We'll do it again and again."
Ice everything down, and do it all over again the next day.
It was extreme, for better or worse, but it was like that with everything.
Going to bed at 7:30 and never seeing friends anymore.
[dog whimpers]
It didn't leave much time for anything else.
[Mardy] From that point on, every single decision that I made
had to do with my career.
I was obsessed.
It was never-ending. I could never be too fit.
[Mardy] All of a sudden, two and a half months go by,
I jump on the scale, and I weighed myself.
172. I'd lost 31 pounds.
So he really… He turned himself into an absolute beast.
Now the season starts.
Still, to this day, I don't know why I came to this conclusion,
but I decided to go to Newport.
["Circuital" by My Morning Jacket playing]
[Mardy] Really small tournament
in this beautiful little town in New England.
But said to myself that I had to win this tournament.
"I have to win this tournament."
Got all the way to the quarters,
and I play a buddy of mine, Frank Dancevic.
[commentator 1] Mardy Fish, 30 pounds lighter.
It was kind of jolting, Jimmy, to see up close.
[Mardy] And I lose the first set quickly.
[commentator 2] And there it is. First set to the young Belgian.
[commentator 1] It's hard to know what Fish is thinking.
[Mardy] "Shit, man, this guy's gonna beat me."
All of the sacrifice that I had made. I had changed my life.
[tense droning]
"I have to win this match."
If I didn't do something to stop this guy,
then I don't know.
"Is this gonna happen? Am I gonna turn my career around?"
So we come to the changeover.
I remember walking up to him,
and out of nowhere…
[inaudible]
"There's no way you can fucking beat me. You can't beat me. No chance."
"I'm gonna fucking beat you. I'm coming back to win."
"There's no way you can fucking win."
And Frank's like, "What? What is going on?"
The umpire's like, "Mardy, calm down."
[man] Mardy!
And I couldn't believe it, but it actually got him out of his rhythm.
[grunting]
[crowd cheers]
[commentator] And Mardy Fish…
Finally, Mardy Fish comes roaring back.
Big kicker. Open court. There it is.
-[crowd cheering] -Mardy Fish.
Unbelievable last point.
Fitness prevailed there,
and, uh, you know, I've worked really hard.
Christian and I have worked really hard.
[Mardy] I went on to win that tournament.
[man] There he is, our champion, Mardy Fish.
-Congratulations! -[crowd cheering]
[Mardy] I did whatever it took to win.
I lost a friendship,
but I had to do it.
Like, this match was the turning point that changed my life.
Really did. It changed my life.
["Circuital" continues playing]
[commentator] Terrific shot-making by Fish.
[crowd cheers]
[commentator] That's so good.
Match points.
[commentator] And Mardy Fish winning Newport and Atlanta.
Two tournaments in a row.
Holy shit. Mardy just started winning back to back to back matches.
[commentator] What a point by Fish!
[crowd cheering]
[commentator] Ten matches in a row now for Mardy Fish.
[Andy] The new Mardy shows up, and all of a sudden,
he has half of the face that he used to have.
He was winning the matches every week.
You sit back and you go, "Huh."
["Circuital" by My Morning Jacket continues playing]
[crowd cheering]
-[commentator 1] Fish got there! -[commentator 2] Wow!
[Christian] He flipped a switch, and he would get super aggressive,
super focused,
just super intense.
-[crowd exclaims] -[commentator] That is world class.
Now I'm just consistently week in, week out,
making the semis and finals of tournaments.
Pretty soon it got to the stage of playing the greatest players of all time.
[commentator] Mardy Fish and Andy Murray getting ready to play on Center Court.
-[commentator 1] Wow. -[commentator 2] That's so good!
Mardy Fish beats Andy Murray.
[crowd cheering]
I took that confidence of winning, and that catapulted me.
[commentator] He's gonna face one of the all-time greats.
[grunts]
-[commentator] Wow. -[crowd cheering]
Rafael Nadal struggling not with the heat, but with Mardy Fish.
Oh, do you like that?
Fish continuing to punish Nadal.
And that brings Mardy triple match point.
Yes!
Mardy Fish has defeated Rafael Nadal for the first time in his career.
[crowd cheering]
[commentator] What a great effort. He got a standing ovation.
Everybody's so happy for Mardy Fish.
[crowd cheering]
[Mardy] Now I'm top 20 in the world.
If I could win just a couple of matches,
I'd legitimately have a chance of making the World Tour Final.
[interviewer] What would it mean to qualify for London?
A lot. There are about 100 guys at the start of the year
that have ambitions of being in London at the end of the year,
and I hear everything that has to do with the World Tour Finals is amazing,
and I'd love to… love to experience it for myself.
[Mardy] But then I played Andy.
And I'd lost to Andy nine times in a row.
[commentator 1] And what a match we have tonight
with Andy Roddick against Mardy Fish, his good buddy.
[commentator 2] Mardy Fish, he's lost nine times in a row to Andy Roddick.
[Andy] When we played against each other,
I wanted to make it physical, I wanted to make it gross.
I wanted to drag him into the gutter with me.
[crowd cheers]
He never was prepared to do that.
[commentator] I just think Roddick still mentally a little bit tougher.
[Mardy] I had lost to him so much because he was so mentally tough,
and he would always out-physical me.
But now I had this new body that could kinda outwork him.
[Andy] All of a sudden, he's inviting to get into 10, 15, 20-ball rallies.
He was willing to get dirty at that point.
["Circuital" continues playing]
[commentator] Oh, how do you explain that one?
[crowd cheers]
[commentator] And that brings Mardy to triple match point.
[crowd cheers]
[commentator 1] Mardy Fish beats Andy Roddick.
[commentator 2] Nobody beats Mardy Fish ten times in a row.
[crowd cheering]
[commentator] Mardy got here off the court.
Congratulations. Skipping those french fries was worth it, right?
It definitely was.
This is one of the best wins I've had, obviously, by far.
[crowd cheering]
Mardy did what Andy always feared Mardy could do,
and then it happened, then it happened twice.
[crowd cheering]
[commentator] Victorious.
Just the second time.
[Andy] At that point, I'm going,
"Maybe I'm not the better player anymore."
Maybe ten years later than we both expected,
but I'm sure he felt he was going to his rightful place
to become the top American.
[Dr. Phil] For those who may not be tennis fans, this is Mardy Fish.
He is the number-one-ranked US tennis player in America.
[cheers and applause]
[host] You're gonna be 30 years old. For now, the number one American player.
What took you so long?
[laughs]
"Holy shit. I'm the number one player in this whole country."
-[man] Mardy! -[crowd] Fish!
See, I knew it. He really could be one of the best.
And then he got to seven in the world, and I was like, "Oh my gosh."
Yes! Pow, that's our Mardy.
[crowd cheering]
[yells]
[Mardy] My ranking went way up.
I finished the year at a career high, seven in the world.
And so I told my trainer, and I told my wife,
"Pack up. London is calling."
When I qualified, I got a call from Jim Courier,
who was number one in the world and won four majors.
He was our Davis Cup captain. He said, "What are you doing?"
I said, "Nothing. I'm in the bathroom." Like, you know, whatever.
I didn't… I didn't bring it up.
And he goes,
"Take a look in the mirror."
"That's a guy that's top ten in the world."
And I went, "Damn right."
[applause]
[announcer] Mardy Fish!
[cheering and applause]
[emotional music playing]
It's an incredibly special event.
Just incredible tennis players.
Federer. Nadal.
Djokovic. Murray.
Fish.
Does that fit, you know? Does that really fit?
And for some reason, it just… it felt right.
There's a reason why, uh, all of us are here.
Uh, we've had great results throughout the year,
and I'm actually the only non-European that's, uh… that's here.
[crowd cheering]
[Christian] It was validation. It was relief. It was exuberance.
It was everything that we'd been working towards.
You don't expect your child to be doing these crazy things.
There's Mardy out there.
He's in the club.
[Mardy] I lost a close battle to the king, Roger Federer.
But I didn't care, man. I really didn't.
The memories of being one of those eight guys,
one of the most special moments of my life.
[camera clicking]
Those were the moments where I could look back and say it was all worth it.
[interviewer] What are the main things you'll take out of this year?
That it's possible to be here, playing,
knowing that I can make it.
It just gives you confidence you can do it again.
And so, I hope that when I turn 30, it doesn't mean that I'll go backwards.
[helicopter whirring]
[Andy] Being the number one American,
it's an amazing thing.
It's a dream come true.
But there's a lot of pressure around it.
The higher the stakes, the harder it gets, the more responsibility.
You become so invested that it hurts when you don't win.
And the psychological part of it is brutal.
The toughest moments of your life, you're out there alone
on an island by yourself,
and it's a terrible place to be, you know,
where you can't show it, but you're feeling these insane emotions.
[deep breath]
[Andy] And the ugly part of it is that it'll start a young age.
At 12, you're like, "That guy's soft."
You don't want that reputation.
So I have a reputation that I was pretty tough.
But I just faked it real well. I was super insecure.
Terrible during Slams to be around.
I have a hard time eating a certain type of sports bar now
because it makes me nervous, 'cause that's what I associate it with,
and I can't actually swallow it.
[director] We're gonna try a picture on this. And action!
[clapperboard strikes]
[tense music plays]
-[woman] Cut! -[director] That's a cut.
[Mardy] 2012, I had some different opportunities now all of a sudden,
not only to play some tournaments I'd never played before,
but the… the appearance fees were a lot different.
So we decided to pack my schedule early.
I started the year leaving for Australia…
and lost in the first round.
[commentator] A disappointing result for Mardy Fish.
[Mardy] And then going back to LA for about six days.
Flying over to Switzerland for Davis Cup.
Back for four days.
Your body's like, "What the hell? There's supposed to be sleep."
And then all the way back to Marseille.
The loss, first round in Marseille.
[commentator] I don't know what's going on with Mardy.
Not playing the same level.
[Mardy] Flying over to Dubai.
Dubai, I started taking a ton of Ambien just to try to get on time zones,
but I lost the second round in Dubai.
[commentator] He's top ten in the world. Mardy should be winning.
[Mardy] Now the stress is starting to mount.
Pressure is starting to mount.
[yells indistinctly]
[speaking indistinctly]
[interviewer] What's happening to US men's tennis?
Obviously, we're not doing very well right now.
Mardy, it's a great effort for him to reach the top ten,
but we need to get better athletes, we need to get hungrier players.
Believe me, we're wondering the same thing.
All of the hopes and criticisms of past number-one Americans,
they were all heaped on Mardy.
[reporter 1] Fish in a big hole.
-[reporter 2] Fish struggles… -[reporter 3] Continues to have trouble…
[reporter 4] Very disappointing for Mardy Fish.
[interviewer] Ever wonder why you're in the top ten?
I won a lot of matches last year.
So, um, I didn't just get to eight or nine in the world by one week.
Mardy wanted to win a Slam and prove that American tennis was great.
[man] Let's go, Mardy!
[Mardy] I did everything I could possibly do
to be 100% perfect.
No alcohol.
Stay disciplined.
Make sure you're eating correctly every day.
It feels like it never ends. It just feels like it just keeps going.
[Christian ]His mind would fixate on something.
He… He became a different person.
It's almost like something snapped.
I don't know if he spoke to you at all about the first time in… in Miami.
[Mardy] So we get to Miami,
and things were off.
My tennis wasn't necessarily off,
but my mind was off.
[grunts]
[commentator] Another miss from Mardy.
Mardy Fish can't play much worse than that.
I remember walking off the court.
There was a TV in the locker room.
It was on ESPN with Patrick McEnroe, my Davis Cup captain.
[inaudible]
And I could hear as I walked in…
[Patrick] Mardy Fish, just… There's no other way to say it.
Just a horrendous performance.
I'm like, "Well, first of all,
that's a horrendous take."
And he started going over and over this in his mind.
[Patrick] …horrendous performance…
And second of all, why would you say that? You're my friend.
You're my Davis Cup captain. We've been through battles together.
Just got bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger.
And that's on national TV.
So I heard it, and it hit hard.
It was something that he couldn't control.
Half of it, he's right. Half of it, I'm like,
"Maybe he's not the only one saying that type of stuff."
[Patrick] …horrendous performance…
You know, that all weighed on me big-time.
[rapid heartbeat]
That night, I wake up at 3:00 a.m.,
and my heart is just racing.
-[rapid heartbeat] -[panting]
"Holy shit, am I having a heart attack?"
"I can't stop this."
"Honest to God, like, I think I'm… I think I'm dying."
-[rapid heartbeat] -[panting]
So I call Christian. He doesn't answer the first time.
Call him again. Doesn't answer. Call him a third time. Just nonstop.
Mardy woke me up.
He was terrified. I was scared as well.
So we had to call the ambulance and go to the hospital.
[Mardy] They put me on the EKG.
My heart rate was 240 beats per minute.
I've never seen it above 192.
The doctors checked me out, and they said, "We think we know what it is."
"It's a thing called tachycardia."
There's electricity around your heart.
When those malfunction, they just fire uncontrolled.
There's a small procedure that you can do called an ablation.
They put you under for hours and hours.
They go through your groin and up to your heart.
It was successful.
I had a full checkout.
I was 100% healthy.
They figured out exactly where the problem was coming from,
and they fixed that problem.
But it turned out there was something bigger going on underneath.
[Mardy] After the procedure,
that was the first time that I felt
these uncomfortable thoughts.
I wasn't aware of what they were or why.
I had never been around anyone with any mental health issue.
I just… I didn't know where to go with it.
And no one knew what I was going through,
'cause I had trained myself to show no weakness.
And that was something that I was proud of.
But leading up till the US Open,
the thoughts were coming more and more and more.
Every three days, to every two days,
to every day, to every hour.
But telling other people about it was showing weakness.
[cameras clicking]
And I didn't know how to handle that.
[cameras clicking]
So I just always kept it inside.
[reflective music playing]
[Andy] The 2012 US Open is a weird tournament.
For me, it's like, "I can't do another year of this. It's hard."
"I can't physically prepare again. I can't mentally prepare again."
So I… I walked away from a career.
All right. Well, thank you all for, uh… for coming. Um…
I'll, uh, make this short and sweet. Uh…
I've decided that this is gonna be, uh, my last tournament.
[reporter] You're 30 and 30 is not that old.
Obviously, Federer is 31.
In a sense, you're sort of retiring early, no?
I didn't wanna make it through this press conference
without a direct comparison to Roger, so thank you for that.
[laughter]
Frankly, these guys have gotten really, really, really good,
and, um, you know, I'm not sure that, um…
with compromised health that… that I can do what I wanna do right now.
I look back on that tournament, I have a little bit of guilt
'cause I'm kind of taking a victory lap,
and I don't know that I knew the depths of what Mardy was going through.
I don't know that I completely understood what was going on.
[Mardy] Once we got to New York,
my mind had completely consumed me,
all day of every day.
And then Andy retired.
Are you surprised that he's calling it here at the Open?
Did this catch you off guard at all?
Uh, yeah. I mean, you know, look, we all have, uh, doubts,
and I never really was able to… to realize
exactly how much pressure he's always been under
at a tournament like this
until last year when I came in as the top American,
and he's handled that incredibly well
without even telling us, um, how bad it is.
[crowd cheering]
[commentator] Possibly the final point of Andy Roddick's career.
[crowd exclaims]
[announcer] Game, set, match, del Potro.
[cheering and applause]
[man] Andy, it's your moment.
-It's your microphone. -[chuckles]
Oh, wow.
Since I was a kid, uh, I've been coming to this tournament,
and I felt lucky just to…
to sit where all of you are sitting today and to watch this game,
and to see the champions that have come and gone, and, uh…
[voice breaking] I… I've loved every minute of it, and, um…
[chuckles]
[cheering and applause]
Thank you for everything. I love you, and thank you, guys. Thank you.
[cheering and applause]
[Mardy] Third round, they scheduled me for a night match on Arthur Ashe Stadium
when, like, they only scheduled the big boys for night matches.
And it's not because I'm playing Federer or Roddick or Nadal.
It was because of me.
That year, people were excited for Mardy.
[reporter] It's been years since an American won the men's singles title.
Are there any men with a chance to bring home the title this year?
[reporter 2] Mardy Fish. He's has been around for a while,
but he's playing great tennis
and ready to win the US Open title.
If you're a fan of American tennis, root for Mardy Fish.
[both] Mardy Fish.
Yeah, he's the last one standing!
[Kevin] All these trailers that are set up or all the TV trailers,
the US was watching.
The world was watching.
[commentator] It's night at the US Open. American players love the nights.
We have seen so much drama through the years,
-so much electricity in these moments. -Yeah.
Mardy Fish has worked awfully hard to get into these moments.
He's seen Andy Roddick, his great friend, have so many moments like this.
And now he'll turn up the energy. It's go time here.
[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the players.
Mardy Fish and Gilles Simon.
[cheering and applause]
-[fan cheers] -[fans] Let's go, Mardy! Let's go!
[rhythmic clapping]
[fans] Let's go, Mardy! Let's go!
[rhythmic clapping]
[fan] Go, Mardy!
[grunts]
[crowd exclaims]
[applause]
[crowd exclaims]
[yells] Fuck! Fuck!
It was a really stressful, emotional roller coaster-type match.
[crowd cheering]
[inaudible]
One of those matches where you're just on edge.
[crowd] Oh!
[applause]
But again, I'm playing well.
I'm not having any of these thoughts on the court.
You know, that's my safe haven.
[crowd cheering]
[yells]
[fans] Let's go, Mardy!
[Mardy] That was the first time I started truly believing
I could win this Grand Slam.
[crowd cheering]
[crowd exclaims, cheers]
[fans] Let's go, Mardy!
[Mardy] I eventually win the third set in a breaker,
and I sit down at the changeover,
and I calm down just a little bit.
And for some reason, I glance at the time clock.
[tense droning]
It says 1:15.
"Oh man, it's so late."
"We're only in the fourth set. This is gonna take forever."
"I'm not gonna get to bed till 4:00 a.m., and that's only if I win this set."
And then all of a sudden,
like, out of nowhere,
just… boom!
"Oh no."
This is the first time that this has happened on the court.
Just the whole weight of the stress came flooding in.
"My body doesn't feel…"
"Am I gonna get sick?"
"My health is gonna go…" "Should go to the hospital…"
"Heart attack?" "Did I eat too much?"
"Did I eat too little?" "Did I get enough sleep?"
Just nonstop thoughts.
I can't stop this.
[overlapping indistinct thoughts]
There's tens of thousands of people watching in the stands and on TV.
[overlapping indistinct thoughts]
There was nowhere to go, and there was no hiding.
[crowd chanting] Mardy! Mardy! Mardy!
[Mardy] I was all of a sudden…
[silence]
…all alone.
["Five day Morning" by The Clientele plays]
♪ Mrs. Jones and I Were dreaming of the moon ♪
[Mardy] My only safe place was now taken.
But deep down, you can't… you can't show it.
[man] Mental toughness is 100% fighting effort.
No whining, no complaining, no escape routes.
[Mardy] I have to keep playing.
[cheering and applause]
I remember looking at Christian, and we both knew something was wrong
and he wasn't himself.
["Five Day Morning" continues playing]
[Mardy] I don't remember anything of the rest of the match.
[overlapping indistinct thoughts]
Which is mind-blowing.
[overlapping indistinct thoughts]
[applause]
[overlapping indistinct thoughts]
[cheering]
[Mardy] I'm surprised the last few games went the way they did.
'Cause I was just in another zone, on another planet.
-[cheering] -[commentator] Game, set, and match, Fish.
6-1, 5-7, 7-6, 6-3.
[Mardy] Justin Gimelstob was the sideline.
All I remember saying was, like, "Please hurry."
Please hurry. I'm not feeling well.
[interviewer] Roger Federer moving forward.
What will you need to do to be competitive and try and beat him?
Uh, I have no idea right now, uh, to be honest. Uh…
A lot more than I did today. Um…
But we'll try to rest as best we can and see what we can do.
[interviewer] Mardy, thanks a lot. Well done.
[crowd cheering]
[Christian] To play Roger at the US Open
on Center Court to get to the quarterfinal,
this is what the number-one-ranked American player does.
Something he kind of had worked his whole life to get to
and have the opportunity to play. It's like a tennis player's dream.
[reporter] It's Labor Day at the US Open,
and here in New York, it's a day when champions will be hard at work.
Roger Federer against American Mardy Fish,
and we'll return to CBS after this word.
[tense music playing]
[Mardy] I wake up the next day thinking, "How am I gonna get through this?"
Trying desperately to figure out a way to just stop having these thoughts.
It kinda just all came out
that he was grappling with thoughts that were, you know, disturbing him.
And he was scared.
[reporter] And there he is.
World number one Roger Federer arriving for his match
against American hopeful Mardy Fish.
It was tough for me to sit back and know that my friend was going through this,
so I shared my difficulties that I had in my life with him.
And…
I remember Christian saying…
I had depression, anxiety issues myself,
and how I had taken medication,
and it may be helpful for him.
I just gave him a hug,
reassure him that everything would be all right.
[Mardy] My wife and I get into the car, ride to Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The thoughts just start flooding back again.
[Stacey] I was just scared for his well-being.
His eyes were filled with tears,
and I remember just reaching over and holding his hand and saying,
"You don't have to play."
"What do you mean, 'You don't have to play'? I gotta pl--"
"I have to play."
I had physically and mentally
and emotionally trained my whole life for that moment.
The thought of pulling out was just unheard of.
I started thinking for a second. I'm like,
"Wait a minute. I don't have to play."
[Sally] We were all sitting, waiting to go in.
We got a text from Stacey saying they were coming,
but something was going on,
and then I remembered Justin Gimelstob saying,
"If Mardy doesn't play this match, CBS is gonna kill somebody."
And I remember thinking, "Oh my God," you know.
"What's happened here?"
[reporter] We're getting official word
that Roger Federer-Mardy Fish match is not gonna happen.
Mardy Fish has withdrawn.
We got to the court and told the USTA I actually wasn't gonna play this match.
And I just broke down right there in front of everyone.
Tennis had just been taken away from me completely,
and, uh, it all just kinda came out right there.
[sportscaster] Mardy Fish, who was scheduled to face Roger Federer,
withdrew due to health concerns…
How is this all manifesting itself to the point where he has to withdraw
from a potential shot at getting to the quarterfinal?
It is symbolic he's playing one of the biggest matches of his career
against the greatest player of all time,
where expectations should be at an all-time low,
and he couldn't even take the court.
[Kevin] I remember looking in his eyes. That was not a tennis player.
This wasn't performance anxiety.
This wasn't, you know, composure.
Like, this was something that was, you know,
wrong.
[Mardy] My life at that time,
it was a living hell.
I was in so much pain mentally.
All I wanna do is just curl up in a dark room
and, like, just not see the world.
I sat in my house for…
for months, um, without leaving.
[Tom] He was having full-blown panic attacks,
and he couldn't get out of bed, basically.
I mean, he was just so far gone.
It was scary how bad he was.
You know…
You know, "What's happening here?" You know?
Forget the tennis.
Can this kid get better?
Can… Can he lead the rest of his life?
[Stacey] It was heartbreaking to see this side of Mardy
that I had never seen before,
and we just didn't know would he ever be back to his normal self.
It was, like, a scary possibility and question.
His family were asking me, "Is this gonna be all right?"
And I'd be like, "Yes,"
and I'd close the door, and I'd be like, "Shit!"
We didn't know if we had to put him in the hospital.
So I just said I'd go out there and see what I can do.
I mean, he couldn't talk.
So we played catch 'cause that was something he did as a kid.
Gave him comfort.
And we were, you know, really worried about him at that stage.
[somber music playing]
[Mardy] I would start thinking the worst of things
and needed professional help.
Eventually,
we found, actually, um,
a child psychologist.
The first time I saw him,
he told me, "You have a case of severe anxiety disorder."
"Incredibly severe."
I started by seeing him every day, seven days a week.
He prescribed me some medication, we did some meditation,
and talked me through how to change the narrative of my thought process
when it went into bad places.
[Christian] It turned out the racing heart rate was the symptom of his anxiety.
Once he got anxious enough,
then his heart would beat too quickly in that one area.
That'd make him a little bit nervous, and then it'd go up a bit more.
It'd self-fulfill itself.
[Mardy] How can I take what I've learned in tennis,
in the mental side of the game,
see if that gives me a leg up?
And it turns out a lot of things I thought were similar
were maybe almost the opposite.
Talking about what I was dealing with made me feel better.
Talking about it to the doctors, to my wife, family, friends
eventually helped me.
And so, ironically, showing weakness and showing fear
and… and letting people in
was a huge, uh…
a huge part of my comeback.
[inaudible]
When I retired, I was a shadow of what the best version of myself was
on the tennis court.
When Mardy left,
he was arguably the best version of himself.
That has to be torture.
But I think I probably was the best version of myself as a friend,
um, once I wasn't playing anymore.
I'm not much of a phone talker.
But with Mardy, we'd call each other every other week and talk for 20 minutes.
I always like to throw a little kind of bait.
You know, "God, man, you could… you could still play."
"You could… you could probably still do it."
He didn't want to. "I don't wanna play. I'm not even close to it,"
and that was the conversation for a couple of years.
Then it changed a bit.
[Mardy] Andy was already retired,
but he said, "Wouldn't it be cool if we could play doubles one more time?"
I was like, "That'd be cool. Let's do that."
So we ended up playing doubles in Atlanta.
[Andy] "If you do this, I'll show up too."
"You make an ass of yourself, hey, I'll do it with you."
[laughs] "Let's… let's… let's… let's jump in the deep end together."
In a couple of weeks, you'll get back on the court.
-[laughs] Yeah. -With Mardy Fish.
-Yeah. Mardy is… -Childhood friend, as you say.
Childhood friend. Was a great-- Still is a great tennis player.
Um, we never got that chance to play one last time.
He's gonna try to make a go of it this summer,
and I'm just so proud that he's trying to get back.
[Andy] You know, it was a complex relationship for a long time.
It was competitive, and there was ego, and…
I was probably worse about that than he was, frankly, but, um, you know…
He, uh, has been nice enough to kinda get me back out here,
and, um, it's been a goal of ours to try to play one more time together.
[Andy] It was… It was so much fun.
We had a blast.
It was like a tennis version of having a beer together. [chuckles]
[Mardy] I remember saying, "This is pretty damn cool."
We went through life's experiences together.
We played each other when we were 12.
[Andy] Us coming from training at that apartment complex
and my dad waking us up at ridiculous hours.
[Mardy] At one point, we were both top ten in the world.
Ultimately, the number one player at our profession in our country.
[Mardy] And we won a round,
which was, um…
which was an upset of the… of the century.
Thankfully, when we lost, I was done all over again.
But he went on to, uh, have a pretty cool summer in 2015.
[man] This tape is about mental toughness.
Deep down, it really ate at me
that I could never get back to the US Open.
[man] Follow the steps…
[Mardy] It wasn't about winning.
I didn't really care about that part.
I had a different purpose.
Going back and conquering the demons
that took everything away from me and changed my life forever.
But I still hadn't come out about my issues with mental health.
So I thought it was a perfect time to sorta tell my story.
There was kind of a family discussion whether he should come out with it.
Everybody wasn't sure about how it would impact his…
like, his career.
There was some debate as to whether or not he should do it.
Mardy wanted to do it. I thought it would be good for him to do it.
Some other people had discouraged him from doing it.
You're…
exposing your weakness,
and a weakness isn't…
Not good for an athlete.
Look, I love sports.
Um, I've loved sports my whole life.
When I was going through this whole process,
I didn't really have a success story I could find
where a world-class athlete had mental health issues
and then came back,
and came back at the highest level.
So I wrote a story to be released the first day of the US Open.
[emotional music playing]
I had trouble with anxiety disorder, um…
for the past three years, so that's why I haven't been back.
And, um, when you can't control it, it's, uh…
it's pretty tough.
[Marty] I really wanted people to understand
beating the stigma of, "Hey, suck it up,"
um, is really important
because it's not as easy as that.
There's absolutely no telling if two months down the road,
or… or maybe even less,
if I didn't get help,
if I didn't get the medication,
if I didn't have someone there with me all the time,
I have no idea if I'd still be here.
[Mardy] It helps me personally to be open and talk about it.
I've spoken to some players privately,
and maybe they're just not comfortable, you know, right here with cameras on 'em
talking about it, but now I've gotten to the point where
I wanna share my story so I can help.
[reporter] Thanks a lot, Mardy.
[applause]
[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen,
please welcome Mardy Fish!
-[fan] Mardy! -[crowd cheering]
[Tom] When Mardy came out with his story
and we read it ourselves,
I was so proud of him.
[crowd cheering]
[host] What will his legacy be?
For a long time, people knew Mardy Fish,
but he was always obscured a bit by Andy Roddick.
Honestly, I think his being so open about mental health,
which is always a bit of a taboo in sports,
I think that's a defining point for Mardy Fish.
He got a lot of thanks from other players.
Current players, former players…
-[inaudible] -…they were all very appreciative
that he had the courage to come out and talk about his issues the way he did.
And to be able to…
[voice breaking] …help him do that, uh…
it meant a lot.
[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen,
Mardy Fish!
Let's hear it for him, New York!
[cheering and applause]
Say, "Bye-bye, tennis!"
Bye-bye, tennis!
The United States has been playing Davis Cup for 120 years.
They have won 32 titles.
They have just named their 41st captain.
Mardy Fish is the new captain of Team USA.
["Same" by Trey Gruber plays]
[Mardy] The head of the USTA called me and said,
"Well, uh, we've decided to offer you the position of Davis Cup captain."
And, uh, I mean, I'll never forget those words.
I was instructed not to tell anyone.
He called me up, and he said,
"You are now talking to the new US Davis Cup captain."
-[Sally] Oh boy. -Just like, "Wow!"
He called and just said,
"You have to refer to me as Captain from now on." [laughs]
I was like, "You know what, Mardy? You can still eat shit
because, you know, you're still Mardy Fish."
[Christian] Mardy called and said
he wanted to get the old band back together
and see if we could do it one more time, and I said, "Absolutely."
[Mardy] Davis Cup is our major team competition.
It's like the World Cup of soccer.
The captain picks the team and runs the team,
and it's the perfect way for me to help the future of American tennis.
[Tom] With Mardy as the 41st captain,
I think it's a great statement not just for Mardy,
but for maybe mental health issues in American tennis.
[Kevin] In a lot of ways, I think Mardy's mental toughness,
it's even more impressive.
His ability to process things, then communicate them
and not being afraid to confront his demons
is gonna be a really important part
of why he's gonna be a good coach and a great captain.
[Andy] I think he'll be best at the job, and he should have the job.
But battling through to where you don't care about the judgment anymore
is the part I'm most proud of.
I'm glad Mardy got to the point
where he could decide the risk was worth the reward.
[Mardy] Look, I will always deal with some sort of mental health.
I used to say to my doctors, "I can't wait for this to go away and be behind me."
He's like, "I hate to tell you, but this is always gonna be part of your life."
And still, you know, six, seven, eight years past, um…
uh, it's still, um…
still is a daily battle,
but I win every day.
["Same" by Trey Gruber playing]
[music slowing down]
[music distorts]
[music stops]