Fish feat forms Federer-less final

Contrary to expectations that he will finally end his title drought of 2008 appropriately in an oasis in the desert, Roger Federer was defeated 6-3 6-2 in the semi-finals by Mardy Fish of the United States at the Pacific Life Open at Indian Wells, California.

Fish is the first American that Federer has lost to since late in 2003. (Andy Roddick, who is 1-15 in his head-to-head with the Swiss, must be green with envy!)

The year's first Masters Series tournament started promisingly for the three-time champion with a straight-set victory in the second round over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, followed by an amazing 6-1 6-1 53-minute rout of Nicholas Mahut in the third round. By the time he mastered Ivan Ljubicic 6-3 6-4 in the fourth round, his winners punctuated with fist pumps and cries of "Com'n!", there was no doubt that the world number one was back to his best form. It was then that a clearly fired-up Federer got a surprise free ticket into the semifinals when Tommy Haas withdrew from their quarterfinal match due to a sinus infection. On hindsight, this might have cost Federer some much needed match practice.

After seeing the champion conjure magical shots in those previous matches, there was therefore something decidedly fishy about an out-of-sorts Federer in his third loss of the season. He was not as quick as usual and his game lacked its customary magic.

Could this be a sign that he is actually not yet fully recovered from mononucleosis? The disease is after all known to recur from time to time.

The unseeded Fish on the other hand displayed the kind of tennis that belied his number 89 ranking and, egged on by an eager home crowd, saw him previously swim past two-time champion Lleyton Hewitt and upset world numbers four and seven, Nicolay Davydenko and David Nalbancian, respectively.

Fish's opponent in the finals on Sunday is Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic who had upset world number two Rafael Nadal in the other semifinals. (Had Fish entered the tournament on a wildcard, that finals would have been an interesting wildcard vs. Djoker match-up. Haha.)

As for Federer, it remains to be seen if he will recover from this string of losses and finally triumph to raise a trophy this year.

In the meantime, we Federer fans will continue to thirst for such an event and have no choice but to wait patiently while our champion regroups for the rest of the season starting with upcoming Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Florida.
Photo credit: Harry How/Getty Images