Black Tennis Pros

It took James Blake a little while to wake up earlier today, nearly to the brink of defeat at the racquet of Agustin Calleri. Blake was a bit sluggish for most of the first two sets of the match, but a bit tension between he and Calleri, his coach and the umpire woke blake up and uh oh. Calleri obviously didn't know good when he had it. At 1 set down and Calleri with three match points,the sleepy Harvard man awakened and once again caught fire moved into a tie-break at the end of the second set. Well it was vitually all over but the shouting at that point. The third set was shear Blake dominance. The final score was 3-6,7-6(2), 6-1.

"I was easily just one first serve away from being out of here and on my way to Flushing Meadows," Blake said. "Now that I'm still in it, I feel great and I feel like I'm kind of lucky to be still at the tournament and still alive." I could have been out of here a while ago," Blake told the crowd following the match. "But I'm excited to be coming back tonight."

During the press conference, when questioned about what was going on between he and Calleri on the court, Blake revealed that he thought that Calleri was receiving coaching from his coach and spoke to the coach about it. He attempted to smooth things out with Calleri at the end of the match but Calleri snatched his racquets, waved his hands, said something and walked off the court. But come on, we know that Blake is guy No. 1, he is definitely not the guy that's going to incite ignorance on the court. Get it together Calleri.

The J-Block was on hand in New Haven today providing big time support for Blake and annoyinig the hell out of Calleri, go for it J-Block!




I'M UP NOW, IT'S ON!: Blake Into Semi-Finals in New Haven

Both James Blake and Fernando Verdasco had tall orders of play today. Due to prior rain delays, they both had two matches to play. The third round and quarter final matches.

The wear and tear of day seems to have taken a greater toll on Verdasco than Blake. Perhaps because Blake rested through much of his first match -- HA! The other key seems to have been Blake winning first serve points. He won the match in straight sets with a score of 6-4, 6-2. Blake served 6 aces and only 1 double fault.

Blake's next opponent will be Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu. Mathieu beat countryman Gilles Simon 6-4, 6-3. He has never played Blake, and knows he will be the underdog.