Black Tennis Pros

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.”

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.

River Oaks U. S. Men's Clay Court Championship, Houston, Texas

Final Round - Singles

James Blake, USA defeated by Marcel Granollers-Pujol, ESP
4-6, 6-1, 5-7


Estoril Open, Estoril Portugal

Final Round - Doubles

Jeff Coetzee, RSA and Wesley Moodie, RSA
defeated
Jamie Murry, GBR and Kevin Ullyett, ZIM
6-2, 4-6, 10-8


Family Circle Cup, Charleston, South Carolina

Final Round - Singles

Serena Williams, USA defeated Vera Zvonareva, RUS
6-4, 3-6, 6-3


USTA Pro Circuit

St. Vincent Auxillary Men's Professional Tennis Tournament, Little Rock, Arkansas

Semifinal Round - Singles

Marcus Fugate, USA defeated by Artem Sitak
6-7(1), 6-7(4)

Okay, I was sitting right there in front of the television watching American James Blake and Spaniard Marcel Granollers-Pujol on the clay court of Houston at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship.

In the first set I saw a toe-to-toe match with Granollers-Pujol edging Blake. In the second set I saw Blake get it together, Granollers-Pujol get a bit frustrated and Blake take the set.

In the third set I saw Blake continue the good play that he was utilizing in the second set, until midway the third set. For some odd reason Blake began making mistakes that I don't understand, can't believe and I was watching the match.

The next thing I new, the match was over and Granollers-Pujol had defeated Blake 6-4, 1-6, 7-5. That's the best that I can describe it.

In other words, I don't know what the hell happened.

*throws hands in air, rubs forehead.*

Blakes take on it, "...maybe I started thinking that the finish line was in sight. He made me hit the extra ball every single time."

"Right now, I'm very upset about it, very disappointed. But hopefully in a day or two I'll think about the fact that at least I made it to the finals of my first clay-court tournament and had chances to win it."

Top seed James Blake advanced to the semifinals for the second straight year at the US Men's Clay Court Championships with a 6-4, 6-3 win over No. 5 seed Agustin Calleri on Friday.

The No. 2 American lost only 12 points in 10 service games and broke the Argentine twice in the 67-minute match. Blake saved the only two break points he faced while converting both break points, in the 10th game of the first set, and second game of the second set.

Blake improved his career record to 15-7 in his eighth straight appearance in Houston. He also evened his career mark to 34-34 on clay with his third consecutive straight-sets victory this week.

Blake is hoping his experience will pay off a first ATP clay court title this weekend. The remaining three players are appearing in their first career ATP semifinal on Saturday.

The 28-year-old Tampa, Fla. resident takes on No. 8 seed Oscar Hernandez for the second time in his career. Blake defeated the Spaniard 6-3, 6-4, in the first round of Basel last year.

"Tomorrow is going to be tough and he beat Mardy and I know Mardy's been playing well because I've been practicing with him," said Blake. "I'm expecting a tough match and the only time we played was on hard courts."

Hernandez reached his first ATP semifinal as he beat No. 3 and 2006 Houston champion Mardy Fish 6-2, 7-6(5).

River Oaks U. S. Men's Clay Court Championship, Houston, Texas

Quarterfinal Round - Singles

James Blake, USA defeated Augustin Calleri, ARG
6-4, 6-3


Estoril Open, Estoril Portugal

Semifinal Round - Doubles

Jeff Coetzee, RSA and Wesley Moodie, RSA
defeated
Yves Allegro, SUI and Nicolas Mahut, FRA
5-7, 6-4, 10/6


Family Circle Cup

Quarterfinal Round - Singles

Serena Williams, USA defeated Maria Sharapova, RUS
7-5, 4-6, 6-1


USTA Pro Circuit

Ballenisles Women's Challenger, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

Semifinal Round

Raquel Kops-Jones, USA and Sunitha Rao, IND
defeated by
Ekaterina Afinogenova, RUS and Lauren Albanese, USA
6-4, 6-1


St. Vincent Auxillary Men's Professional Tennis Tournament, Little Rock, Arkansas

Quarterfinal Round

Marcus Fugate, USA defeated James Ward, GBR
7-6(3), 6-3

Phillip Simmonds, USA defeated by Julio Peralta, CHI
6-4, 6-2

River Oaks U. S. Men's Clay Court Championship, Houston, Texas

Round 3 - Singles

James Blake, USA defeated Ryan Harrison, USA,
6-3, 6-2


Estoril Open, Estoril Portugal

Round 1 - Doubles

Jeff Coetzee, RSA and Wesley Moodie, RSA
defeated
Robert Lindstedt, SWE and Jarkko Nieminen, FIN
6-2, 6-7(4), 10/6


Family Circle Cup

Round 2 - Singles

Serena Williams, USA defeated Katarina Srebotnik, SLO
4-6, 6-4, 6-3


USTA Pro Circuit

Ballenisles Women's Challenger, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

Round 2 - Singles

Raquel Kops-Jones, USA defeated by Anna Tatishvili, GEO
6-4, 6-0

Quarterfinal Round

Raquel Kops-Jones, USA and Sunitha Rao, IND
defeated
Asia Muhammad, USA and Ashley Weinhold, USA
6-2, 7-6(4)


St. Vincent Auxillary Men's Professional Tennis Tournament, Little Rock, Arkansas

Round 2 - Singles

Marcus Fugate, USA defeated Luigi D'Agord, ITA
6-3, 4-6, 6-4

Phillip Simmonds, USA defeated Guillermo Rivera-Aranguiz, CHI
6-2, 3-6, 6-2

Quarterfinal Round - Doubles

Marcus Fugate, USA and Adam Fass, USA
defeated by
Haydn Lewis, BAR and Bjorn Munroe, BAH
6-1, 7-6(5)


Tallahassee Tennis Challenger, Tallahassee, Florida

Round 3 - Singles

Scoville Jenkins, USA defeated by Alex Kuznetsov, USA
4-6, 7-6(5), 6-3

Top seeded American James Blake avenged his Delray Beach final loss to Japan's Kei Nishikori, defeating the rising star 6-4, 6-4 on Wednesday in Houston to advance to the second round at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship.

The 18-year-old Nishikori challenged Blake as he twice went up a break in the start of the second set, but the American No. 2 responded by leveling the score each time and then broke Nishikori one more time to secure the win in one hour and 27 minutes.

"It definitely feels good anytime to avenge a loss," said Blake. "Usually the slower court hinders me, but this time I think it helped because his balls are helped by a quicker court. It makes him more effective and he doesn't seem to have a problem with pace. It makes the serve much more effective. It gave me the opportunity to look at his serve a lot better here on slow court."

Nishikori had come into the tournament ranked a career-high No. 116, backed by his title effort in February and ATP Masters Series debuts at Indian Wells and Miami, but he has now lost four straight matches in his ATP main draw appearances.

Blake, who picked up his 20th match win of the season, will attempt to advance to the quarterfinals for his six straight tournament when he confronts another youngster, 15-year-old American qualifier Ryan Harrison, on Thursday night. Harrison is the third youngest player to win an ATP match since 1990, behind Richard Gasquet and Rafael Nadal.

Round 1 - Singles

James Blake, USA vs. Kei Nishikori, JPN

Donald Young, USA vs. Fernando Vicente, ESP*
*Young defeated Vicente 6-3, 7-6(5)











Round 1 - Singles

Gael Monfils, FRA vs. Maximo Gonzalez, ARG*
*Monfils defeated Gonzalez 6-3, 6-4













Round 1 - Doubles

Jeff Coetzee, RSA and Wesley Moodie, RSA
vs
Oliver Marach, AUT and Michael Mertinak, SVK