Black Tennis Pros

Friday, Delray Beach, Fla. (AP) — Second-seeded Ivo Karlovic of Croatia advanced to the semifinals of the Delray Beach International Tennis Championship on Friday, overpowering seventh-seeded James Blake in the third set for a 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-1 victory.

The 6-foot-10 Karlovic served 23 aces in improving to 5-3 against Blake and reaching his first semifinal in four quarterfinal appearances this year.

Blake broke the 33rd-ranked Croat once, the fourth game of the second set at love.

In the third set, Karlovic lost only three points in four service games. He won two service games in the final set at love — two of the four points in the first game were aces, and three of the four service points in the fifth game were aces.

Blake, a two-time finalist at Delray Beach, questioned whether Karlovic's backhand was in on the point that cost the American his serve for the second time in the final set, but he lost the argument.

“To miss a call that’s clearly out when you can overrule a 140 mile-an-hour first serve seems a little strange to me, but that’s going to happen,” said Blake.

Later, Blake teamed with fellow American Robert Kendrick in a doubles losing effort against Slovakia's Igor Zelenay and Germany's Philipp Marx, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, [10-6].

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At the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships on Thursday, American James Blake, who has reached the finals here twice, advanced to the quarterfinal round after a 6-3, 6-1 defeat of Robin Haase of The Netherlands. Blake's next opponent is Croatia's Ivo Karlovic.

After his win over Haase, the 30-year-old American hit the main stadium court for a first-round evening doubles match, teaming with Robert Kendrick to defeat fellow Americans Eric Butorac and David Martin 6-3, 6-4 on a chilly night in South Florida. They next meet Philipp Marx and Igor Zelenay, who earlier upset the No. 3-seeded team of Ross Hutchins and Jordan Kerr in three sets.

In his first round match, Blake defeated fellow American Taylor Dent 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.


Atlanta Tennis Championships Inaugural Tournament

Committed to playing in the inaugural Atlanta Tennis Championships is James Blake, the long-time American tennis star who has been ranked as high as No. 4 in the world. Blake has won 10 ATP titles, including the 2006 Indianapolis tournament, which the Atlanta tournament is replacing. He started his career in 2000 and has been a Davis Cup stalwart for the American team.

The Atlanta event, owned and operated by USTA Southern, will serve as the kick-off to the 2010 Olympus US Open Series.


Caesars Tennis Classic Inaugural Tournament

A match between Pete Sampras and James Blake has been added to the inaugural Caesars Tennis Classic at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City on April 10.

The event, being hosted by Venus Williams, has three matches in a team format.

The first features Ivan Lendl, in his first match since his 1994 retirement, against Mats Wilander in a one-set no-ad scoring match.

The second match has Andy Roddick, currently the top-ranked American men's player, facing Marat Safin in a best-of-three-set match. This match will also be no-ad scoring and will be decided by a super tiebreaker (first to 10 must win by two) if necessary.

The third match has Sampras, 14-time Grand Slam champion, against Blake in a best-of-three-set match. This match will also be no-ad scoring and will also be decided by the super tiebreaker, if necessary.

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At the Movie Gallery Pro Classic tennis tournament in Dothan, Alabama at the Westgate Tennis Center on Saturday, American Shenay Perry advanced to the event's final when her opponent Austrian Patricia Mayr retired at 6-3, 2-1, Perry leading.

When asked about the win Perry said, “I will take anything , I felt like I was playing pretty good.”

In the other semifinal American Carly Gullickson defeated Russian Evgeniya Rodina 2-6, 6-4, 6-3. Gullickson and Perry are good friends and have played together on occasion as doubles partners. The two have played each other in singles competition twice — each winning once.

“Playing each other in the finals would be fun,” Gullickson said before the second semifinal match began.

Sunday's final will be the first championship match of the year for both players.

“I’ve never done well here before,” Perry said. “I always hate to play a friend, but playing against Gullickson will be fun.”




At the USTA Tallahassee Tennis Challenger Presented by Comcast at Forestmeadows in Tallahassee, Florida on Saturday, Donald Young, who defeated Robert Kendrick 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 in the semifinals, met John Isner in the championship match.

The first set went back and forth, with both players holding serve until 5-5. On Young’s serve, Isner was able to capitalize on his second break chance to take the lead 6-5. Young was able to save one set point, but Isner’s serve proved to be too much, as the former Bulldog pulled out the set 7-5.

“Donald had some chances to break me because I started off a little slow,” Isner said. “I was fortunate to get out of some jams on my serve, and that helped me gain momentum. Once I got a look at a break point, I played a pretty good point and converted.”

Young was defeated by the former Georgia Bulldog 7-5, 6-4.

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Past champions James Blake and Mardy Fish rallied to defeat wild card duo Amer Delic and Robert Kendrick 4-6, 6-4, 10-7 in an all-American first round match Monday at the US Men’s Clay Court Championship, an ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament.

Blake and Fish clinched the Houston title on their team’s event debut in 2004 (d. Leach-MacPhie), and were also semi-finalists in ’06. The two are playing together for the second time this year; they reached the semi-finals in February at San Jose, but withdrew prior to the match due to Blake’s right ankle injury.

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