Fish fry ends up burning Federer

There was no explaining this one.

The planets must have been out of line. Martians must have sneaked into the stadium and sent out strange laser beams.

This couldn’t have been the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, home of the Pacific Life tournament. It had to be the Twilight Zone.

This time, seeing wasn’t believing.

On a beautiful Saturday afternoon, in front of 16,870, in the men’s semifinals of one of the most important tournaments in the world, a guy ranked 98th, who doesn’t even know how to spell his name right, beat Roger Federer.

No, make that destroyed Roger Federer.

Yes, 6-3, 6-2. Crushed, whipped, dismantled. Pick your verb.

Even Mardy Fish, who did it, knew he wasn’t supposed to, knew this result was other-worldly.

“It was one of those -- just kind of ‘I’m not sure what just happened, but I might as well go up to the net because I think the match is over,’ kind of celebration.

“You know, it was pretty surreal.”

Some funny stuff in the ozone layer.

For those new to the details of this sport and this event in the Southern California desert, Roger Federer is the No. 1 tennis player in the world. Has been since February 2004. He’s about as beatable as the 1972 Miami Dolphins.

He has 12 major titles to his credit and Pete Sampras, the man with the record 14, has already shrugged and conceded the inevitable.

Fish, a 26-year-old from Tampa, Fla., who had been one of those next-great United States hopefuls several years back, has one Tennis Masters Series final to his name and a silver medal in the Athens Olympics. He had made it as far as the fourth round here once, in 2004, and until his quarterfinal finish in the 2007 Australian Open, he had never gotten past the third round of a Grand Slam tournament in 21 tries.

When Fish made it to today’s final here, he became the second lowest-ranked player in tournament history to do so. The honors still go to Larry Stefanki, who was No. 143 when he made, and won, the 1985 final. They played that tournament at La Quinta, in front of dozens, and within walking distance of Stefanki’s house.

This one was on national TV and most of those 16,870 watching in person will be telling their grandchildren some day that they were there the day Roger Federer lost to, uh, um, ah . . . just wait, the name will come.

Fish might have been as stunned as everybody else. But to his credit, he handled the aftermath with poise and a sense of humor.

A reporter asked, “Can you think of another upset in tennis history that maybe compares to this one?”

Fish laughed, then responded, “I don’t think I’m that bad.”

Fish said, as Federer had pointed out in his news conference, that he had been in the top 20 several times and was currently ranked this low because he missed nearly six months with various injuries last year.

“I’ve always thought that I had the capability of being in the top 10,” he said.

He certainly played like it Saturday.

Always a big server, this time most of them went in. Always suspect from the forehand side, this time most of them not only went in, but looked like guided missiles. Fish attacked, on all strokes, from every angle, and seldom missed.

“It was over in a heartbeat,” Federer said.

Fish wore an ice pack on his right elbow during his news conference, and his explanation said it all.

“I try to hit my serve as hard as I can, every single time,” he said.

These semifinals were supposed to showcase the three greatest male tennis players in the world and some other guy. Then the upset of No. 1 Federer turned No. 3 Novak Djokovic’s 6-3, 6-2 victory over No. 2 Rafael Nadal into an afterthought to the conquering hero, No. 98 Fish.

So Djokovic will play Fish in today’s 2 p.m. final.

If you had that final in your bet in Vegas, fly back over on your spaceship and get another one down on the final. This time, it will be like shooting fish in a barrel.

(Sorry.)

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Dwyre can be reached at Bill.Dwyre@latimes.com. For previous columns, go to latimes.com/dwyre.