Fish feared for his life

Mardy Fish today revealed how he feared he would die from a heart condition similar to that which left Bolton’s Fabrice Muamba fighting for his life on the pitch at White Hart Lane last season.

The 10th seed today made his first appearance on court since undergoing a heart operation last month, and his lack of match practice showed as the 30-year-old American was forced to fight all the way for a straight sets win 7-6, 7-5, 7-6 over Ruben Ramirez-Hidalgo of Spain.

Yet Fish, beaten in the quarter-finals here last year by Rafael Nadal, is lucky just to be competing after suddenly falling ill in his hotel room in March following a defeat to Juan Monaco in the last eight of the Masters 1000 tournament in Miami.

Recalling how he felt his heart racing, and that he could find no way to slow his pulse, Fish said: “I honestly felt like I was going to die. I had just read about that soccer player.”

That was a reference to Muamba, who collapsed after a cardiac arrest during the FA Cup clash between Tottenham and Bolton in March.

Doctors equipped Fish with a round-the-clock heart-rate monitor, and he eventually underwent a catheter ablation — a procedure done under general anaesthetic whereby a catheter is fed into the heart which is then stimulated electrically — the week before the French Open.