Top seed James Blake tackles teen qualifier Kei Nishikori for the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships singles title on Sunday afternoon in South Florida. Blake, who is trying to become the first American ATP singles titlist of the year, is 10 years and one day older than his final opponent from Japan.
Blake will be playing in his 21st career ATP singles final. He is an even 10-10 in his first 20 title bouts, which can be broken down to 10-8 on hard and 0-2 on grass. Last year he was 2-3 in finals, all on hardcourts (he won Sydney and New Haven and finished runner-up here, at Los Angeles and AMS Cincinnati).
The top seed has never won Delray Beach since the tournament began in 1993.
Nishikori is playing his first ATP main draw of the year, and just the sixth of his career. He played his first five in 2007 posting a 3-5 mark (his best result was the quarterfinals at Indianapolis, as a qualifier).
Nishikori is playing his first career ATP singles final.
Nishikori is trying to become the first first-time ATP singles title-winner this season; the last player to win their first ATP singles title was Steve Darcis, who did so at Amersfoort last summer.
Nishikori is trying to become the second player this year to win an ATP singles title having saved match point en route, after saving four match points against No. 3 seed Sam Querrey in the semis (the first player to achieve this feat this year was Fernando Gonzalez, who saved two match points in the semis of Vina del Mar two weeks ago against Pablo Cuevas, before going on to win the title).
Nishikori is the first Japanese player to reach an ATP singles final since Shuzo Matsuoka at Queen’s Club on June 14, 1992 (finishing runner-up to Wayne Ferreira). He is trying to become the first Japanese player to win a title since Matsuoka won Seoul on April 26, 1992.
Nishikori's ranking is projected to rise from No. 244 to around No. 146 if he loses and No. 122 if he wins today.
Nishikori’s match against the No. 12-ranked Blake will be his third encounter with a Top 50 player.He is 0-2 in his first two, falling to then-No. 27 Dmitry Tursunov in the quarterfinals of Indianapolis last summer (6-1, 6-4) and to then-No. 12 Ivan Ljubicic in the first round of Beijing last fall (6-3, 6-4). (ATP Digital Services)
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