Black Tennis Pros

ROME — James Blake struggled with the windy conditions and lost to Romanian qualifier Victor Crivoi 7-5, 6-3 Monday in the first round of the Rome Masters.

Blake lost the opening five games against the 112th-ranked Crivoi, rallied to make it 5-5 - saving three set points along the way - then was broken at love to end the first set.

With intermittent rain falling in the second set and the wind swirling on the makeshift secondary stadium court at the Foro Italico, Blake wasted a 2-0 lead and handed Crivoi his first victory on tour this year.

With sixth-ranked Andy Roddick taking a break from the tour following his wedding, the 16th-ranked Blake was the top American in the draw. Blake has now lost both of his matches on clay this year, falling to Guillermo Canas in Houston at the beginning of the month.

Source: The Canadian Press
Photos by AP

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This evening, in the first round, American James Blake was eliminated from the singles competition at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship in Houston, Texas. Blake lost to Argentine Guillermo Canas 6-4, 6-4.

"It turned on a few key points . . . at times I beat myself out there,” Blake said. “I made too many errors. He kind of forces you into that with how well he plays defense, but there’s really no excuse for those errors, especially the ones I made at key times.

"If you expect to win matches and tournaments, you’ve got to play better on those points. I would have liked my chances if I’d gotten that last break.”

Having recently fallen out of the world's top ten, Blake is now ranked #17 on the ATP World Tour.

Photo by Getty Images

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On Tuesday at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in Memphis Tennessee, a very global group was handed their walking papers in the first round.

From Japan's Kei Nishikori, to American Donald Young, to the 2003 title holder American Taylor Dent, to Argentine Guillermo Canas, and others.... defeat was prevalent in some who I thought would at least make it past the first round. Did I mention that Sweden's Robin Soderling is also in this group?

Neither Young or Nishikori have been setting the courts on fire as of late, so I guess I'm more hoping that they will prevail. Dent and Canas haven't been on top of their game in awhile either, but these are two players who you expect to see beyond round 1.

A quartet of Americans will be front and center on Wednesday, James Blake, Andy Roddick, Sam Querrey and Mardy Fish. Let's hope they fair a bit better.

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Guillermo Canas of Argentina has moved into the semis at the Tennis Channel Open in Las Vegas, Nevada. Canas defeated American Amer Delic 6-4, 6-4.

(I only posted this because I have a serious crush on Canas, hehehe.)

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