Fish Out of Water at ATP Delray Beach

Wednesday night the American's slump continued with a three-set loss in the second round to unseeded Ricardo Mello "Yellow" of Brazil, a tough set-back on the eve of representing the U.S. in the Davis Cup semifinals against Belarus.

"I've been struggling a little bit in the past couple of tournaments with my second serve," said Fish, who threw in some key double faults in the third set. "I think I hit my first serve pretty well, but my second serve I struggled on at key times in the match...He's a counter-puncher. He's pretty quick and he plays a lot of balls. It's a pretty straight-forward kind of match. He doesn't really hurt you with anything, he just makes you play that extra shot."

Other winners on the day in second round action were (3) Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic (d. (Q) Delic), Denmark's Kenneth Carlsen (d. Phau in three), and Frenchman Jerome Golmard (d. countryman De Chaunac).

On tap for Thursday are Salzenstein vs. Goldstein in an all-American, Jeff "The Lizard King" Morrison vs. (Q) Armando in an all-American, "Grinning" Greg Rusedski vs. (Q) Boeker, and (1) Spadea vs. Blake (Spadea leads meetings 3-1) in an all-U.S.