Fish named new U.S. Davis Cup captain

Former world No. 7 and Davis Cup veteran Mardy Fish has been named the new captain of the U.S. Davis Cup team.

Fish succeeds Jim Courier to become the 41st captain in the team’s 120-year history and will make his debut at the newly transformed Davis Cup by BNP Paribas Finals, Nov. 18-24 in Madrid, Spain.

“Ever since I started playing professionally and started understanding what the Davis Cup was and how special it was, even as a player, I wanted to be the Davis Cup captain,” said Fish, who went 11-8 in his Davis Cup career. “I just thought that position was so special – leading the guys and leading the team, building relationships and the team aspect around it. I’m a team-sport athlete stuck in an individual sport, and I love the team aspect of Davis Cup. To even be considered, let alone named the captain, is incredibly humbling.”

Courier leaves his position with a 10-8 record over eight years at the helm. Along with Tom Gordon, Courier is the second-longest tenured U.S. Davis Cup captain of all time, trailing only Patrick McEnroe, who led Team USA to the 2007 championship in his seventh of 10 years in charge.

To read USTA.com's exclusive Q&A with Fish, click here.

In this new era of Davis Cup, the role of captain will be expanded, with the position working more closely with USTA Player Development throughout the year, as well as traveling to multiple tournaments and camps to support American players, serving as a mentor for American pros and juniors. He will also ensure the U.S. Davis Cup team remains a strong platform to grow the game through the USTA’s Net Generation youth initiative.

“Mardy Fish embodies all of the qualities of a successful Davis Cup captain and will be an invaluable asset to Team USA,” said USTA Chairman of the Board and President Patrick Galbraith. “His achievements as a player both on tour and in Davis Cup are renowned, and his acumen for the game is as strong as his relationships with our American players. There are few people in tennis as qualified to lead the U.S. Davis Cup team into the next decade, and we cannot wait to see what that future has in store under Mardy’s leadership.”

Fish, 37, reached the singles quarterfinals at three of the four Grand Slams and won a combined 14 ATP titles (six singles, eight doubles) before retiring from playing at the 2015 US Open. He also produced a number of signature performances while representing his country, earning the singles silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics and writing his name in the U.S. Davis Cup record book.

Fish played in 11 Davis Cup ties for the U.S. from 2002-12 and is the most recent U.S. Davis Cup player to win three live matches in a single tie, in a 3-1 World Group playoff win in Colombia in 2010 that kept alive Team USA’s now-record uninterrupted streak in the World Group. Fish’s two singles victories in that tie were five-setters, and he and Courier are the only U.S. Davis Cup players to win two five-set matches in the same tie.

In that tie on the outdoor red clay in Bogota, Fish spent 10 hours, 59 minutes on court, a U.S. Davis Cup record since the introduction of the tiebreak in 1989. He won a three-hour, 59-minute opening singles match against Alejandro Falla; a two-hour, 55-minute doubles match with John Isner against Robert Farah and Carlos Salamanca; and a four-hour, five-minute clinching singles match against Santiago Giraldo. With the win, he became only the ninth American to win three live points, and the first since Pete Sampras achieved the feat against Russia in the 1995 World Group final.

In his last Davis Cup playing appearance, Fish, who went 7-7 in singles play and 4-1 in doubles, beat Stan Wawrinka in five sets and teamed with Mike Bryan to beat Wawrinka and Roger Federer in a 5-0 sweep of Switzerland in the 2012 first round.

After retiring in 2015, Fish worked part-time as a coach with USTA Player Development, helping to guide young Americans on tour, including Taylor Fritz and Jared Donaldson, through 2017.