No. 8 Mardy Fish says that he would like to reach a Grand Slam semifinal for the first time, among other goals. Fish finished 2011 ranked in the top eight for the first time and is the highest seeded American at the Australian Open.
"The goal is to try to make the Masters Cup. I never really set that goal last year,” Fish said. “I wanted to get to the top 10. I forgot about actually finishing in the top 10. Just tasting that, being able to be a part of that with those guys last year, that's what will drive me now. Obviously I want to go further in a Slam than the quarterfinals and put myself in that position to see what that feels like. I want to win a Masters 1000 event, too, because I've lost four of those in the final set."
However, the 30-year-old also added that that he did not get enough of a mental break after the ATP Finals.
"No, certainly not," he said. "I'm used to having quite a bit of time off, 'cause last two years, besides last year, '09 and 2010, I didn't play after the US Open but maybe one tournament. So I actually had quite a bit of time off. I thought that if I didn't have a lot of time off, something like what Djokovic did at the end of the 2010, last year, then '11 he didn't have that much time off, so you don't really lose that much and all you're doing is gaining. You don't lose a lot of play. I start out slow usually. It's tough to figure out how to put points together, put games together and such. So I thought that maybe that would sort of catapult me in the beginning of the year. Maybe it will." - Matt Cronin