Blogging Blake Wins ATP Sydney TitlePosted on January 15, 2006  Apparently blogging has its merits for players on the ATP tour.James Blake, who has been writing a blog of his exploits this week for the ATP website, collected the title Saturday in Sydney, with the No. 8 seed outlasting unseeded Russian Igor Andreev 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(3) in the brutal Australian summer heat. It was the third title in the last seven events for the resurgent Blake, who in now apparently fully recovered from the header he took into a net pole at the French Open in 2004, breaking his neck. "I'm just looking forward to playing with a lot of confidence, as I did today," said Blake in the last week before the start of the Australian Open. "Especially this was perfect, playing in the heat, get ready for three out of five. I don't know, would have been rough to play three out of five in this heat today, but both of us I'm sure would have found a way to get it done." Croat Ivan Ljubicic blogged for the ATP website last week, subsequently winning the title in Chennai. Andreev failed to serve out the match against Blake leading 5-4 in the third. "I'm really happy now to be in the final, especially my (lack of) preparation before the season, I couldn't maybe, you know, work lot of (training) because I had knee surgery," Andreev said. "Like first two weeks were just getting into the practice, you know, just to see little bit how it's going to respond, the knee. So here I think was perfect because like the work that I didn't do in the preparation, I done it here, you know, playing the long matches. So it's going to really help me a lot." Blake is projected to move to No. 22 on the ATP Rankings, tying his career-high from 2003. It was the fourth career title for the American, with all coming on hardcourts. In the doubles final, the new pairing of No. 4 seeds Santoro/Zimonjic rolled past unseeded Czechs Cermak/Friedl 6-1, 6-4. "It's a great win, only the second tournament together," Santoro said. "Sydney was a pretty tough tournament as there were many tough teams playing." |
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