The matches between Spanish players and Americans at Wimbledon have been rough for the home team:  Andy Roddick lost to Feliciano Lopez in straight sets.  John Isner lost to Nicholas Almalgro in four.   Michael Russell and Ryan Sweeting both lost to Rafael Nadal in three.  Ryan Harrison lost to David Ferrer in five sets.

Americans are 0-5 against Spanish players at Wimbledon.  Times have changed with players from a red clay court country dominate the Americans on grass.  If only Roddick and Isner could have had a shot in the nineties when all it took was an unreturnable serve to reach the finals (remember Krajicek and Ivanisevic?) where you lost to Pete Sampras.

This year there were only nine Americans in the draw;  the only three Americans to lose to players not from the Iberian Peninsula were James Blake (remember him?), Donald Young (and him?), and Alex Bogomolov.

But there’s one match set for Wednesday that could make up for all of it.  Mardy Fish, making a strong showing beating Tomas Berdych on Monday to reach the quarters, goes up against number one seed Nadal.   A Fish win would be huge, not only his biggest win ever, but it would give the Americans some positive momentum heading into the July 8-10 Davis Cup matchup between the two countries in Austin, Texas.

Fish is 0-5 in his career against Nadal, but the way he’s playing, don’t count him out.