Black Tennis Pros

American James Blake during first round match against Lukas Lacko of Slovakia  on Day One of the 2012 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

Native New Yorker and hometown favorite James Blake, now 32 and playing in his 12th US Open, and a new dad as of June, toughed out a lengthy, momentum-killing rain delay and defeated Lukas Lacko of Slovakia 7-5, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in the first round in Louis Armstrong Stadium Monday.

After coming out a bit flat to start the first set, Blake and Lacko traded a slew of unforced errors. As the stands began to fill up with late-arriving supporters, Blake slowly found his rhythm. The 24-year-old Lacko – who hasn’t won a match since losing to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the third round at Wimbledon – continued to struggle.



In the first set, after serving his first perfect game of the match to tie the score at 5-5 and breaking Lacko with a cross-court Hail Mary return that just grazed the line, Blake grabbed a 6-5 lead. He served out the set 7-5 with a perfectly placed ace clocking in at 125 mph.

Blake cruised in the second set with the crowd behind him. The American capitalized on an early break of Lacko, and he built an insurmountable lead, finishing the set in 28 minutes.

That momentum vanished after a two-hour rain delay. The veteran Blake appeared stiff when he returned to the court, and he allowed Lacko back into the match, giving up his serve and essentially handing the Slovak the third set.

After trading early breaks in the fourth, Blake survived the brief scare, finally claiming the win on his fourth match point, as he confidently stepped around a backhand and crunched a forehand down the line.

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The No. 11 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga began his US Open campaign with a solid, straight-set win over Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan.

Tsonga showed no signs of the right arm injury that forced him to retire against world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the semis of Montreal in early August. His serve and forehand were firing on all cylinders, at least when he needed them to, as he secured a service break in each of the first two sets and jumped out ahead in the third for a comfortable 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 win.

Tsonga, his demeanor relaxed and confident, hit seven aces, 39 winners and had 29 unforced errors. The times the No. 82-ranked Lu did challenge Tsonga on his serve, the Frenchman overcame the threats with almost routine efficiency, by pouding serves and forehands to Lu's weaker backhand side.

Tsonga is now a solid 20-9 in Grand Slam matches in 2011, with a semifinal finish at Wimbledon in his last major. He also has two wins over Roger Federer in the past three months--one in the quarters at Wimbledon and the other in the round-of-16 in Montreal. A finalist at the 2008 Australian Open, Tsonga's hard-court suited game makes him one of the main challengers here to the big three of Djokovic, Federer and Rafael Nadal.


In his first round match today at the U.S. Open, World No. 84 Donald Young, chalked up a win against Slovak Lukas Lacko, ranked 162nd in the world in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4.


Post match Donald was asked about being the first American male to win on the new court, he said " It's awesome.  I didn't know that.  I'm just happy to win the first match and happy to be on that court, which is great. Yeah, I'm happy that's part of history."

When compared to fellow American Mardy Fish in that he seems to be a late bloomer, Donald responded, "Yeah, I mean, I think everyone's light turns on at their own time.  I'm starting to feel like mine is turning on.  Yeah, people do it at their own time.  Not everybody does it when everybody expects it to be done. I wish it could have been earlier.  It's starting to come now and I'm excited about it."

COMPLETE INTERVIEW HERE

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