Fish falls to outstanding Falla

Mardy Fish became the first top ten seed to be eliminated from the men's draw Wednesday losing to world No.71 Alejandro Falla of Colombia.

The world no.8 was unable to discover his 2011 form as he crashed to an uninspiring three set loss 6-7 (4) 3-6 6-7 (6).

The 71st ranked Falla, who is yet to register an ATP title win, signalled his intentions early by breaking Fish in the first game of the match courtesy of some dazzling defensive play.

Fish struggled to find any consistency in the first set, making a total of 25 unforced errors and was unable to gain any momentum serving with a 54 percent first serve efficiency.

In contrast, Falla played with confidence, coming to the net and combining a series of impressive topspin ground strokes with a reliable slice backhand.

The Colombian failed to close out the first set on his serve allowing Fish to force a tiebreak.

Despite a late surge of momentum Fish was unable to capitalise as Falla took the first set in little under an hour.

The American Fish could not find his game in the second set as his inconsistency saw him broken in the fourth game before his opponent raced to a 5-2 lead.

Falla was able to capitalise on Fish’s erratic form streaming to take the second set 6-3 and create a two set buffer.

The third set brought much of the same for Fish who lost to Australian Bernard Tomic in the final of the AAMI Classic in the lead up to the Australian Open.

The pair went toe-to-toe for the beginning of the set before Falla claimed first blood breaking the Fish serve to take the score to 3-2.

With all appearing lost Fish was able to break back in the following game to keep him in the set.

The American’s desperation was most evidently projected when he dramatically fell to the court as while scampering for a ball.  He was soon rewarded as he was able to hold serve taking the set to 4-3.

Fish was able to finally break his tiring opponent who was forced to receive continuous treatment for leg cramp.

But the break was short lived as Falla broke back and held serve to take tie the score up at 5-5 much to the American’s frustration.

Fish yelled out in anger following a series of erratic ground strokes that saw his lose his narrow advantage.

The match was forced into a close third set tiebreak that pushed a fatigued Falla to the limit.

Fish saved two match points and made the Colombian work hard but could not capitalise as he saw his Australian Open 2012 dream come to a disappointing second round end.

The Amercian said Falla just played better on the day.

"Um, (I) didn't play great.  You know, he played well.  Made a lot of errors.  You know, conditions are about as ideal for me as I would have liked as far as the second and third set, heat and stuff.

"Just didn't work out.  You know, couple tiebreakers that I won last year, you know, most of those.  Played good when he needed to," Fish said.

He planned to now focus on the Davis Cup, and he didn't feel like the early exit would affect his confidence.

"This is how I started last year as well.  I was sick.  But I'm healthy now, so I'll go home and gear up for Davis Cup and enjoy that.

"But, no, I mean, there is so much confidence in this game that that wavers from time to time.  You got to be strong. I don't have that many years left, so I'm not going to waste my time thinking that I'm not very good right now," he said.

Speaking after the match, Falla said he had confidence he could beat Fish.

“I think in the Grand Slams is where you have to play your best and I think I’m able to do it. I kind of always play well in the big tournaments and I know my game bothers most of the top guys,” he said.

“I have beaten a few of the top ten, I have that on my mind so every time I go out and play the top guys I know that I can beat them.”