Roddick Rolls, Hewitt Weathers Blake Assault at Australian Open

Posted on January 20, 2005

<a href='http://www.tennis-x.com/playernews/James-Blake.php' id=namelink>James Blake</a> in happier hair times

American James Blake announced his return to also-ran form after injury forced him to the sidelines in the latter half of 2004, Thursday blowing a set lead against No. 3 seed Lleyton Hewitt in a 4-6, 7-6(8), 6-0, 6-3 losing effort at the Australian Open.

Blake, who at last year's French Open injured his neck after doing a header into a net pole, has now made a career of going toe-to-toe with the former No. 1 Aussie then withering in the end.

Blake went five sets with Hewitt in their first meeting during the infamous "black linesman" incident at the 2001 US Open, dropping the final set 6-0, then again lost in five to Hewitt the following year at Flushing Meadows.

On Thursday Blake looked like he would break the jinx, starting with a balanced mix of baseline play and net approaches against the former No. 1. But up a set and serving at 6-5, nerves set in as Blake started rushing his play and stoning easy balls to give the Aussie momentum, losing the eventual tiebreak and the next set at love.
FOLDHERE

"I see that as a learning experience," said Blake, who will no doubt be in the running for the coveted No. 2 singles spot on the U.S. Davis Cup team in 2005. "I mean, I've been off tour for a while. So coming back and playing that, you know, that's what I missed, being in a tiebreaker with one of the best players in the world, the crowd at this point against me...That's a good feeling because when you're out for as long as I was with the kind of things I was (injury and the death of his father), you never know if it's going to come back at all."

Seeds joining Hewitt in the third round Thursday were (6) Guillermo "El Fragile" Coria (d. Ricardo Mello "Yello" in four), (7) Tim Henman (d. Hanescu), (9) David Nalbandian (d. Ventura in four, bagel in the first), (12) Guillermo Canas (d. Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco, bagel in the fourth), (23) Fernando "Gonzo" Gonzalez (d. Andreev), (25) Juan Ignacio Chela (d. Carraz), (26) Nikolay Davydenko (d. Christophe "The Roach" Rochus), (31) Juan Carlos Ferrero (d. Zabaleta, dropping only three games), and (32) Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer (d. the Aussie hope Healey).

"I was taken a little bit by surprise the way his serve was coming off the court," said Henman of his first meeting with Hanescu. "Obviously tall guy, rising up pretty quickly. I thought I was a little unlucky to lose my serve actually in the first set."

Upsets were orchestrated Thursday by Frenchman Jean-Rene Lisnard (d. countryman (14) Grosjean, coming from 0-2 sets down), Spaniard Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal (d. (15) Youzhny, who had a match point in the fourth, coming from 1-2 sets down), American Bobby Reynolds "Wrap" (d. (17) Pavel), and Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber who received a gift when (18) Nicolas Massu retired with an ongoing ankle injury after losing the first eight games.

In the only all-unseeded match on the day, Radek Stepanek outlasted Czech countryman Jan Hernych 6-0 in the fifth.

In the last match of the day, (2) Andy Roddick recovered from a second-set hiccup to defeat unseeded Brit Greg Rusedski 6-0, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, setting up a third-round meeting with Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer.

There were also three doubles upsets on the day choreographed by Karol Beck/Sargis Sargsian (d. (10) Damm/Palmer), Irakli "Freak Show" Labadze/Roger Wassen (d. (11) Cermak/Friedl), and Italians Giorgio Galimberti/Filippo Volandri (d. (14) Knowle/Pala in three).

With Friday's line-up the seeds start to meet in Melbourne in (4) Safin vs. (28) Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic, (1) Federer vs. Nieminen, (29) Dent vs. (8) Agassi, (10) Gaudio vs. (20) Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty, (11) Joachim "The Jackhammer" Johansson vs. (24) Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez, (30) Thomas "Tommy the J." Johansson vs. K.Kim, Marcos "Bombs Over" Baghdatis vs. (13) Tommy Robredo, Olivier "The Roach" Rochus vs. Beck, in doubles Spaniards Al Costa/The Prodigy vs. Frenchmen (15) Julien "United Colors of" Benneteau/Nicolas Mahut, and Argentines Chela/Prieto vs. Americans Blake/Fish.