BLAKE AND BARKER BREAK — James Blake and his coach Brian Barker, who has coached him since his junior days, have mutually parted ways. Blake is finishing out the year with fellow Floridian Kelly Jones as his coach. Jones, a former No. 1-ranked doubles player on the ATP tour, has worked with other Floridians Mardy Fish and John Isner.

Sestini does talk about one part of the US Open: scheduling block difficulty. Organizing matches is like arranging a concert tour from opening act to main performer — it needs to happen in the right order.

Andy Murray has the tools to win a Grand Slam event, but he does face a tough question: “Should I stick with a generally effective strategy of counterpunching or change strategies by developing and using bigger shots?” Internal doubts arising from this quandary might be worse than just selecting one option and committing to it.

I think it is important to shed light on the effort that under girds these events and makes a sport we all enjoy possible. Tennis tournaments also provide an opportunity to appreciate the brilliant eccentricities of human behavior (I don’t just mean the guy juggling while walking on stilts at Cincinnati either).

Just for fun, I am trying something different. As the 2009 hard court season heads toward the finish line, I came up with some hypothetical matches between former U.S. Open champions.

Speaking of tickets. For grins, I stopped by the Lacoste store on M St. to check out how the Roddick ticket give-away was going. There was a healthy and well organized line, with a few people also walking out with shopping bags to boot. Well done all around.

This is not a column about the color of tennis courts despite clay courts looking like the terrain of Mars and most hard courts at professional tennis events no longer being green. While covering the 2008 Indianapolis Tennis Championships, members of what looked to be a local scouting troop wearing hats saying “Environmental Team” were [...]

This year, Alexandra Stevenson, Vince Spadea, Travis Parrott, Phillip King, Nick Monroe, Ryan Sweeting, Donald Young have indicated they would be playing. Tommy Haas, Taylor Dent, the Bryan Brothers and Marcos Baghdatis have all been invited. Last year Tommy Haas came to the event, but did not play due to issues with the ATP, issues that have supposedly been worked out.

From tennis writer Chris Goldsmith of Sportingo: “Serena Williams is unhappy about still being No.2, even though she is the holder of three of the four majors at the moment.

Israel clinched the tie in the Saturday doubles when Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram stopped a comeback from former No. 1 Marat Safin and Igor Kunitsyn 6-3, 6-4, 6-7(3), 4-6, 6-4.