World No. 25 Mardy Fish of USA will take on former World No. 3 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia to secure his berth in the second-round of the 2012 US Open, this year’s last Grand-Slam tournament, being played here in Flushing Meadows, New York.

Fish earned a straight sets 7-6(3) 7-6(2) 6-3 victory over G. Soeda in his opening encounter, while veteran Russian Davydenko was pushed to four sets by G. Pella but in the end he brought in all his experience to muster a hard-earned victory.

Mardy Fish became top American on tour last season by producing some consistent results but he failed to continue in the same manner in 2012. Fish made a bad start to the new season, as he fell in the second-round at the Aussie Open, but made up for that by reaching the quarterfinals in Miami. He did not participate in any tournament until Wimbledon. Before that he had to undergo an operation due to a precarious heart condition. He reached the fourth round at Wimbledon and then did not compete in Olympics to recover from recurring injuries. Fish has a decent 19-11 win-loss record for the season and he is bidding for his seventh career title.

Fish’s opponent Davydenko has a poor 17-18 win-loss record for the season so far that clearly elucidates his dwindling form. The Russian has 21 career titles to his name so far but he has been struggling with a bad form for more than a year now. Though, he has all the potential to cause massive upsets at the US Open, Davydenko is certainly looking low in self-belief, which has been plaguing his career badly.

In head-to-head, both contenders are evenly placed at 2-2. Last time they met in 2011 Cincinnati Masters where in-form Mardy topped the Russian in straight sets. Well, both contenders are not looking near to their bests at the moment. Thus, it would be interesting to see how they would tackle each other.