Black Tennis Pros

Alas, it 'twas not to be. World No. 1 Roger Federer earned his 50th career title by defeating James Blake-- the new world No. 6 -- 6-1(ouch), 6-4 in the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters Series final on Sunday.

"It's not a goal I set for myself in my career, but it's definitely a nice number to get to, especially in terms of titles," Federer said.

Ever the diplomat and all around nice guy, Blake stated "just about everything he does is pretty impressive. Fifty titles at 26 is incredible."

Now I was dead in there with Patrick McEnroe when he proclaimed on Saturday evening that Blake was going to win on Sunday. I just knew it was true, I just knew it. The fire that Blake played with against Davydenko had to burn straight through the finals on Sunday. But, the pilot slowly burned out during Sunday's game. Not that I think that Blake blew it, because Federer was focused and "Federer". And when Federer is on the money, we all know that there's very little that many of the other players can do against him. Plus I think Blake had to suffer for Federer's loss last Sunday to Djokovic.

Nevertheless, Blake had an incredible run last week and I do believe that he'll jump back on the Blake train and take it for a nice ride in New Haven, Connecticut this week. I'll definitely be watching and posting all week.

James Blake advanced to the semifinals by beating Sam Querrey 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 on Friday night in a matchup of Americans. He'll face fifth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko, who beat David Ferrer 6-2, 6-4 in the last match of the day.

Blake and Querrey played a close-as-could-be match last month in Indianapolis. Querrey served a career-high 34 aces — including 10 in a row — while winning in three sets, all of them decided by tiebreakers. The 19-year-old Querrey had trouble with his serve and found himself occasionally fighting his nerves in his first televised match from center court.

"I had a blast out there, even though I lost," said Querrey, who is ranked No. 65. "That was one of the most fun matches I've ever played. First of all, TV — that's pretty cool."

Blake was more aggressive in the final set, coming to the net to gain the upper hand. He crouched and pumped his fists after breaking Querrey's serve to go up 4-3, then served it out and finished it off with an overhead slam at the net.

It's the second time the 27-year-old Blake has reached a Masters semifinal — he lost the title match at Indian Wells to Federer last year. Blake had to pull out of Montreal last week because of strained abdominal muscles, and didn't know whether he could play. The injury hasn't bothered him.

"Maybe it's a sign that I need to rest a little more sometimes," Blake said. "Maybe it's the lack of expectations coming in. This time, I didn't know what to expect. I wanted to make sure I was healthy."

Source -- International Herald Tribune

No. 9 seed James Blake pulled away from Colombian qualifier Alejandro Falla to win 7-6(5), 6-1, and improve his match record to 34-17 on the season. Blake converted three of six break points in the 68-minute match and he will face German Nicolas Kiefer on Wednesday.

Blake said concerns over a stomach injury had him in a tentative frame of mind early. "I pulled a stomach muscle last week and I was just kind of testing it. So just kind of trying to be careful and figure out what I wanted to do... it felt good by the end of the first set. "Second set I was able to swing a little bit more freely and go for my shots, especially with the confidence having won the first set without playing my best tennis.

Blake also took the time to sign copies of his best selling book "Breaking Back" at the Linder Family Tennis Center in Cincinnati.