American tennis ace Mardy Fish has a knack for light-hearted banter that often brings out his memorable encounters with Swiss tennis legend Roger Federer. In response to a query about whether he’d ever been rudely treated by a famous personality, Fish had a hilarious take. He humorously reminisced about the 2004 Halle final, where Federer steamrolled him in what can only be described as a one-sided thrashing.
With a twinkle in his eye, Fish suggested that Federer’s rampant run in the initial stages of the game, bagging nine games in a row (though it was actually seven), was quite impolite. The Swiss maestro breezed through the match with a 6-0, 6-3 victory in a mere 57 minutes, successfully defending his Halle title and firing a potent warning shot before the Wimbledon tournament.
During that week in Halle, Federer was in his prime, losing a paltry 26 games across ten sets on his way to clinching his 16th ATP title. He started his campaign by defeating Thomas Johannson 6-3, 6-2 in just over an hour, which seemed to give him a motivational boost. Then, Mikhail Youzhny faced a similar fate, going down 6-2, 6-1 in another swift match that lasted just 69 minutes.
The Swiss titan was in full swing, effortlessly cruising through multiple breaks. Arnaud Clement put up a slightly longer fight, lasting 72 minutes, but ultimately fell short with a 6-3, 7-5 loss. Federer’s formidable service game, coupled with two pivotal breaks, paved his way into the semi-final.
Jiri Novak was Federer’s next victim, losing 6-3, 6-4 in a quick-fire 53-minute match, with Federer’s surgical precision on full display. Then came Fish, who was unable to halt the Swiss juggernaut’s unstoppable momentum in what was anticipated to be a nail-biting grass-court duel.
Federer outmatched Fish by 26 points, delivering a first-set whitewash and a decisive victory. He lost a mere nine points across eight service games, never encountering a break point. Fish, on the other hand, couldn’t keep up, especially with a serving efficiency of just 55%.
Fish found himself surrendering more than half of the points in his games and was broken four times out of seven opportunities presented to the world’s top-ranked player. Federer’s impeccable timing resulted in 25 winners against ten unforced errors, and he forced Fish into making 20 errors, asserting his dominance with his racket.
Federer established a 30-8 lead in advanced rallies and also dictated the pace in shorter exchanges, emerging victorious in under an hour. Fish made an early blunder, allowing Federer to break him and solidify his grip on the match. The first set was a breeze for Federer, who sealed it in just 23 minutes.
Fish finally managed to halt his slide in the second set’s second game, scoring a few points and marking his presence on the scoreboard. However, Federer broke him again in the sixth game and secured a 4-2 lead. Despite Fish’s resilience in the eighth game, Federer served for the title at 5-3 and won the match with a forehand drive-volley winner.
With this victory, Federer became the first defending champion in Halle since Yevgeny Kafelnikov, while Fish got a tale to share two decades later, adding a humorous twist to his experience of being overpowered by the tennis icon.
