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Mardy FishMatthew Stockman

There is an appealing everyman quality to the American tennis player, Mardy Fish, that's been on display throughout his march to the Rogers Cup final. In early rounds, Fish - the tournament's No. 6 seed and the first man to book a trip to Sunday's final - played a couple of matinee idol types, Fernando Lopez and Ernests Gulbis. They looked great in their flashy outfits, with their textbook style of play and graceful swooping strokes.

Fish was out there, mostly wearing a McEnroe-era headband, stubble on his face, non-descript grey tennis shorts, playing his old fashioned serve-and-volley game. At 29, he sometimes looks like a shambling throwback to another era, someone that might not look out of place on your neighborhood court, as opposed to playing out at some swish country club.

Looks, however, can be deceiving.

Fish brought game, lots of it this week, and playing in the bottom half of the draw that lost both No. 2-seed Rafael Nadal and No. 4 seed Andy Murray early on, made the most of his opportunity.

Fish eliminated surprise semi-finalist Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia in straight sets 6-3, 6-4 Saturday afternoon and will meet the winner of the Novak Djokovic-Jo Wilfried Tsonga match in Sunday's final. Djokovic, who hasn't lost a set all week, was scheduled to go on court around 8 p.m. Eastern time in the second semi-final.

Fish is the first American to get to the Rogers Cup final since Andre Agassi in 2005 (when Agassi lost in three sets to Rafael Nadal in Nadal's first-ever hard-court victory). Fish has now won 11 of his last 12 matches during the ATP North American hard-court season and this marks the first time in his career that he's reached the semi-finals in three consecutive tournaments.

No American has won the Rogers Cup since Andy Roddick did it in 2003.

After needing three sets to dispatch both Gulbis and No. 14 Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland, Fish had a comparatively easy time of it on centre court against Tipsarevic. He raced off to a 3-0 first-set lead and never the let the Serb - who bears an uncanny resemblance to the U2 front man Bono - back in the match.

Assuming Djokovic gets through, it will set up an interesting final, given that Fish will be the first opponent he's met this week willing to play a varied brand of tennis. Fish's rankings have risen steadily as his commitment to fitness improved these past few years. He has dropped 30 pounds over the past two years by altering his diet, as so many players on the circuit have of late. Pizza, said Fish, is what he misses the most from among the former dietary staples that he's purged from his menu.

Two years ago, after knee surgery that stemmed largely from the fact that he was overweight, Fish tipped the scales at 203 pound. Now he's down to a compact 175 pounds.

"I needed to change some of my ways just to be able to get back on the court at a relatively high level," explained Fish. "The most important thing we changed was just my discipline around my diet. But the discipline that it took to stay focused with that every single meal, every single day, was tough. That translated over to my tennis and my work ethic on the court and off the court, making the right decisions around tennis."

Fish's improved athleticism was evident in the match against Tipsarevic, where he played an aggressive brand of tennis. Every time, he got a short ball from Tipsarevic, he followed it into the net. Of course, the difference between Tipsarevic and Djokovic is that Djokovic doesn't give up many short balls.

Fish has surpassed Roddick as America's best hope for the 2011 U.S. Open and among the U.S. players that he came up with, is essentially the last man standing.

Roddick has struggled with injuries this year and the likes of Taylor Dent and Robbie Ginepri are either retired or hanging on, moving between the main tour and the Challenger circuit.

Fish, meanwhile, is in the midst of a career year. He won earlier in Atlanta, defeating John Isner in the final. He made the finals in Los Angeles a couple of weeks back, losing to Gulbis in three sets. He was a quarter-finalist at Wimbledon before falling to Nadal and made the semi-finals of the Masters stop in Miami, where Djokovic knocked him out. Overall, he was 30-15 for the year, including a 20-9 record on hard courts, before winning his first four matches here.

Meanwhile, the top-seeded doubles team of Bob and Mike Bryan advanced to the final with an easy 6-2, 6-1 victory over Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic and Florian Mayer of Germany. Berdych was the No. 7 seeded singles player in a tournament where most of the big names, except for Roger Federer, all tried their hands at doubles as well.

According to Bob Bryan, the presence of the top singles players can only enhance interest in doubles: "It adds a lot of excitement for the fans. They love seeing the contrast of styles.

"The big time exciting singles players that have all the shots playing against the doubles specialists, when we play those guys, we treat it like any other match. We obviously admire and love watching them on the singles court, but we try to expose their doubles weaknesses. We try to pick on them at net and hopefully they're not as quick as most of the guys on the doubles court.

"Nadal is tough to play. He stays on the baseline. That presents a lot of challenges. We try to take his time away. Federer, when he really wants to play good doubles, he can, as you saw in the Olympics. He won it.

"Sometimes you just hope to stay away from them. If you have to play them, you gear up."

As the winningest doubles team of all time, the Bryans suggested that Canada's Daniel Nestor, playing alongside anyone, has represented their toughest foe: "He's 39 years old now. Incredible career. He's got the gold medal, all the slams and all the Masters Series. That lefty serve is nasty. No one wants to face it. It's won him many a match. He's clutch in those tight moments, always hitting great shots.

"You've seen him have a great run with (Mark) Knowles, (Nenad) Zimonjic, now he's having a great year with (Max) Mirnyi. It's been that way for the last 10 years.

"You might see another Bryan/Bryan versus Nestor and Mirnyi tomorrow."

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