Mardy Fish reveals heart issues

Mardy Fish withdrew from the French Open with what organizers called fatigue, but the highest-ranking American player was actually suffering from a form of arrhythmia that required surgery.

Fish told USA Today on Sunday he underwent a procedure Wednesday in Los Angeles to correct faulty wiring in his heart.

"It felt like my heart was going to jump out of my chest," Fish said of the extreme palpitations that would wake him in the middle of the night.

“

I was completely panicking. I thought I was going to die.

”-- Mardy Fish of 30-minute episode
hours after March 29 loss to Juan Monaco

"During days, I'm totally fine," Fish told USA Today. "I can track it and work out fine. But every time I would go to bed my mind would start racing. Is this going to happen tonight? Is this going to be another night like that? It was super hard to go to sleep."

Fish said the problem started in February before a Davis Cup match against Stanislas Wawrinka. The episodes happened a few more times in the weeks to follow, but the worst came following a quarterfinals loss to Juan Monaco at the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Fla.

Fish told USA Today he awoke around 3:30 a.m. with his heart beating three times faster than the expected rhythm for a world-class athlete at rest.

"I was completely panicking," Fish said of the 30-minute episode. "I thought I was going to die."

Fish woke his trainer and the two eventually decided to call 911. Fish left his hotel on a gurney that night and was taken to a local hospital.

Fish went to be checked by a doctor, then saw another doctor the next day. He pulled out of the U.S. Davis Cup team's quarterfinal against France the following week and the initial public diagnosis was fatigue, but Fish said doctors couldn't pinpoint the exact problem in his heart.

Fish then returned to training, using a small electrocardiogram unit to monitor his heart, according to the report. Fish tested the heart at a tournament in Houston on April 12, but Fish said he had another small incident in the early morning hours before his eventual opening-round loss.

"After Houston we really realized it was an issue instead of thinking it was a one-off," Fish told USA Today.

Fish said doctors rendered the problematic heart circuits "dormant" during Wednesday's surgery and he expects to recover fully.

"They feel like it was very successful, and that it's totally behind me now," Fish told the paper.

Fish says he plans to resume light training later this week and is aiming for a return at Wimbledon, or its grass-court tuneup at Queen's Club.

"I want to stress that I'm good now, I'm fine, they've fixed the problem," he told USA Today. "I don't want people to think I missed the French Open because I didn't want to go because I was just tired. That's just not the case.

"Look, I'm still in the top 10 in the world and still the No. 1 American. This is still a very fun time for me. I don't want to sit on my ass while I'm 10 in the world."

Steve Johnson wins 2nd title in row

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ATHENS, Ga. -- Southern California's Steve Johnson is ready for a break from tennis. His body could sure use the rest.

Johnson won his second straight NCAA singles title Monday with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Kentucky's Eric Quigley.

"It was killing me to serve, and I've had this shin issue for six weeks that no one's really known about," Johnson said. "I was trying to pull through it and we have an incredible training staff to keep me out there on the court every day."

In the doubles championship, Chase Buchanan and Blaz Rola of Ohio State beat Texas Tech's Raony Carvalho and Gonzalo Escobar 7-6 (4), 6-3 to become the first pair to win all three collegiate majors in the same school year.

Johnson, the tournament's No. 1 seed, ended his college career with 72 consecutive victories, finishing the season 32-0.

But his title run the last few days was hardly easy. Johnson played with a strained abdomen and shin splints and overcame a bout of food poisoning.

By leading USC past Virginia in last week's team final, Johnson became the first men's singles champion to help his school win four straight team titles.

"It's kind of a special way to end your college career with a win," he said. "It's something I'll look back the rest of my life and never forget.

The third-seeded Quigley ended his year at 54-8, the best in school history.

Johnson broke serve to lead 5-4 in the first set and 4-3 in the second. He dropped to his knees in celebration after Quigley's shot went deep on match point.

"I thought I was right in there." Quigley said. "Served pretty well except for a couple of points in some games I got broke in. I got some looks on his serves, but he just came up with some big serves to hold.

Johnson won his semifinal Sunday over Stanford's Bradley Klahn, the 2010 singles champion, in straight sets. But his pain was bad enough that he had to retire from the doubles quarterfinals Saturday even though he and Roberto Quiroz were leading Texas Tech's Carvalho and Gonzalo Escobar 6-3, 3-2.

Johnson began hurting even more earlier Saturday during his quarterfinals win over Virginia's Alex Domijan. It was his ninth straight day of playing and marked the only set he lost in the singles tournament.

"He's got a shin issue that's turning into a stress fracture and against Domijan he hurt his ab, and that just kept getting worse and worse," USC coach Peter Smith said. "I knew if he could see the finish line, he'd get through it because that's the kind of kid he is."

Johnson, who plans to rest the next few weeks before training for the U.S. Open, could tell Quigley was anxious during some decisive moments.

"I think I was able to handle the bigger points well," Johnson said. "I don't know, Eric was nervous or tight or uptight at all, but when it came time to win the big points, I think he got a little tentative and I was able to kind of be aggressive and take it from him."

Quigley, who twice lost to Johnson during their college careers, was stunned by the accuracy of his opponent's serve. Quigley said he didn't know Johnson was in pain, particularly when bending his back on a second serve.

"I think his nerves and his ability to come up with some great shots at big moments makes him pretty special," Quigley said. "His serve -- I think he can put it on a dime. I think he did it several times today."

Kentucky coach Dennis Emery said he considers Johnson the most productive player in men's college history.

"To me, I think that's a much bigger accolade," Emery said. "It's the biggest compliment I think you can give somebody is to talk about their character and their productivity."

Rain forced the doubles match to move indoors at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex, but the venue change didn't affect the tournament's No. 1 seed of Buchanan and Rola.

The Ohio State pair won the ITA All-American in October and the USTA/ITA Indoor Intercollegiate Championships in November before beating Carvalho and Escobar.

"This whole season we think that our returns got us to where we are now," Rola said. "Chase is certainly better on the net game, and I'm probably more steady on the baseline. We just tried to make that happen, and with the coaches on the side helping us understand our strengths on each shot, it kind of helped hold the whole package together."

Nicole Gibbs wins women's crown

ATHENS, Ga. -- Nicole Gibbs and Mallory Burdette had no trouble putting aside their differences to help Stanford win its second national title of the day.

Not long after Gibbs knocked off her Cardinal teammate 2-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 to win the NCAA singles title, she and Burdette joined forces to beat Georgia's Chelsey Gullickson and Nadja Gilchrist for the doubles championship Monday.

[+] Enlarge

AP Photo/John BazemoreStanford's Nicole Gibbs reacts after defeating teammate Mallory Burdette to win the women's singles NCAA championship.

"It's hard to play your teammate in such a big moment," Stanford coach Lele Forood said. "And then to come back and double with them to win a title is a testament to how mature they both are and that they could do what they had to do today."

Gibbs and Burdette credited their 6-2, 6-4 doubles victory with having already gotten over the nerves of playing on a big stage. Following a 2-hour, 40-minute singles match, Gibbs and Burdette weren't affected when rain forced the doubles match to be played entirely indoors.

Their legs benefited, too, from an 80-minute delay between the end of the singles and the start of doubles.

"We make it really tough on our opponents when we make a lot of first serves and a lot of returns," said Burdette, who paired with Hilary Barte to win the 2011 doubles title for Stanford. "We make them play every single point and then we're putting pressure on them by moving around at the net. I think we do a great job of that."

The doubles victory assuaged any awkward feelings that followed the singles match.

After beating her teammate, Gibbs seemed almost apologetic.

"I got to look that pain of losing in the eye in the second set," Gibbs said. "Just being down in the breaker, I saw it multiple times, so I know how tough that is and I wouldn't wish that on a teammate in any other situation. I'm happy that I won, but I'm also sad for her as well."

Gibbs, the No. 3 seed, trailed 4-1 in the second set and 5-2 in the tiebreaker before the fifth-seeded Burdette double-faulted to even the match.

Gibbs, a sophomore, is the first Stanford woman to win the singles title since Amber Liu in 2004. The last championship match with two Stanford women came in 2001 when Laura Granville beat Lauren Kalvaria.

"I've been through that few times, so the hard thing is to find somewhere to sit and not fidget too much because it is unusual," said Forood, who has led the Cardinal to six NCAA team titles in 12 seasons as coach. "I was not surprised at the length of the match. Obviously, there was a little bit of see-sawing, but I'd seen them play already once this year in a final and it was similar."

Though she started slowly in singles, Gibbs regained some of the momentum she had from taking a three-set victory Sunday over No. 1 seed Allie Will of Florida.

Gibbs needed to get a feel for the power of Burdette's serve and return before she could gauge how much energy to expend.

"I just had to use as much grit as I had to kind of claw my way back into the match," Gibbs said. "All I could do was just play defense to the best of my ability and take my advantage whenever she gave me an opportunity on offense."

Burdette couldn't fully explain why she struggled in the last two sets.

"I definitely helped her out a little bit at the end of the tiebreaker with my errors," Burdette said. "But it's the same thing. All in all, I didn't have the guts to finish it."

In the doubles match, Gilchrist and Gullickson didn't begin fully hitting their ground strokes until the second set.

"You could tell that they were warmed up from their singles match," Gullickson said. "Nadja and I just kind started off slow."

For Stanford, the day ended as well as Forood could've expected.

"It's probably one of the biggest days in our program history," Forood said. "It's very exciting, especially because no one's graduating, but it's quite an amazing day."

Serbia wins World Team Cup

DUESSELDORF, Germany -- Serbia overcame the Czech Republic in the final of the World Team Cup on Saturday to clinch the title for the second time.

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Janko Tipsarevic and Viktor Troicki won their singles matches to give Serbia an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series at the Rochus Club.

The No. 8-ranked Tipsarevic was first off the mark when he snapped a three-match losing streak against the No. 7-ranked Tomas Berdych with a 7-5, 7-6 (8) victory.

Then Troicki recovered from a terrible opening set to beat Radek Stepanek 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.

The doubles match to be played later Saturday will have no bearing on the final result, leaving Serbia to celebrate its first title since 2009.

Epic point comes with toll for both

PARIS -- Talk about leaving it all out on the court.

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After quite a point at the French Open -- 38 strokes over nearly a minute -- France's Richard Gasquet vomited right there on Court Suzanne Lenglen. His opponent, Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov, collapsed with a leg cramp and crawled on his hands and knees to a line judge's chair.

It came 1 hour, 50 minutes into their second-round match Thursday, with Dimitrov serving at 7-5, 5-4, 30-40. Gasquet hit an overhead winner to break serve en route to a 5-7, 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 victory.

Gasquet blamed his intestinal distress on some fruit, then joked: "The banana is still on Suzanne Lenglen. I was really feeling bad. But he was on the ground. He was even in a worse situation than I was."

No Victory-a For Azarenk

No Victory-a For Azarenk

PARIS -- For two sets, Novak Djokovic's game was sort of like Sunday's weather at Roland Garros: dreary, drab, not much to write home about.

Before it got any worse, Djokovic turned things around, fought off an unthinkable upset and kept his chances alive for the "Novak Slam."

Djokovic completed his third career comeback from two sets down, shaking off 81 unforced errors -- the same number he had in his first three matches combined -- for a 4-6, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 victory over surprisingly game 22nd-seeded Andreas Seppi of Italy.

"Today, I played a very poor match," Djokovic said.

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When you're No. 1, you play with a bull's-eye on your back, as Novak Djokovic and Victoria Azarenka found out Sunday, ESPN.com's Greg Garber writes.Story

It wasn't pretty, but Novak Djokovic ultimately got the job done. And that's what matters for now, writes ESPN.com's Ravi Ubha.Blog

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Other than the fact that he grinded it out and won, and that his hopes of winning his fourth straight Grand Slam tournament are still alive, there wasn't much to build on from this win, his 25th straight in the majors.

"I'm not worried," Djokovic said. "I'm just hoping that I can wake up tomorrow morning knowing that I'm in the quarterfinals. Forget this match today. Take the best out of it, which is that I'm proud I've been fighting, coming from two sets down."

Roger Federer also dropped his first set before rallying to reach the quarterfinals at a record 32nd consecutive major tournament.

"Lucky loser" David Goffin of Belgium got an up-close look at his idol in Federer -- and even took a set off him -- before the 16-time Grand Slam champion won their fourth-round match 5-7, 7-5, 6-2, 6-4.

A cold front and a big rainstorm blew through Paris overnight; Sunday morning on the grounds felt sleepy and quiet, both in the stands on down on the courts.

"I was fighting very hard," Djokovic said. "Even when I was two sets down, I still believed that I could win."

Djokovic made it to his 12th straight Grand Slam quarterfinal and added this two-set comeback to a list that includes last year's comeback against Federer in the semifinals at Flushing Meadows, when he saved two match points before escaping.

This one never got that close, and after an early break in the third set -- the first of seven Djokovic recorded over the final three sets -- there was a sense of inevitability.

The match took 4 hours, 18 minutes, though it figures the gray skies and temperatures in the low 60s won't take too much of a toll on the world's top-ranked player.

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Djokovic will await the winner between Stanislas Wawrinka and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Goffin, 21, playing in the main draw at a major tournament for the first time, and only because someone else withdrew, pulled off three upsets before facing Federer, whose posters hung in his childhood bedroom.

Federer said the whipping wind was a factor in his match, but gave most of the credit for his troubles to his opponent.

"He's got great potential in terms of his touch and the way he reads the game," Federer said. "I thought it was an interesting match."

Goffin, ranked 109th, clearly enjoyed himself. After winning one late point with a volley, he held up an index finger, then bowed to the arena's four corners.

"I've had an extraordinary week," Goffin said. "I went through the quallies with a bit of luck. Then I played my best tennis. I played three great matches. The icing on the cake was to play here with Roger."

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.