Black Tennis Pros

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This is one loss that American James Blake can take with a grain of salt. We literally watched a man without a plan come into the Estoril Open and establish and execute a grand plan.

After his semifinal match was suspended on Saturday because of rain, darkness and who knows what else, Blake came back on Sunday and finished the job, defeating Davydenko 6-7(3), 7-6(2), 6-3.

Not long thereafter Blake had to return to the court to play the final against Spainard Albert Montanes. Montanes saved two match points at 4-5 in the second set and came back to beat 5-7, 7-6(6), 6-0 just over two hours.

Yeah well, he didn't have to play two matches either (sour grapes). Congratulations to Montanes and to Blake. Blake had an absolutely fabulous run and made my tennis for the year thus far.



“Tennis is a game of inches,” said Blake. “If he missed the line by one inch on one of the match points, I would have won. It didn’t and he gained confidence. It happens to every player. Today, it happened to me in the final. With the exception of one bad set I played some high-level tennis all week.

“Of course I’m disappointed in a loss. But I’m going to try and look back in the next couple of days and think about it positively. I came in here with very little confidence on clay, having lost my last two matches. At least now I won my last four matches and put myself in a position to win a clay-court tournament. I couldn’t take advantage of it, but I will go onto next week’s tournament with a lot more confidence and try and duplicate the results.”

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MADRID (AFP) — American James Blake continued his fine form on clay by reaching the first European clay final of his career with a 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 win over Nikolay Davydenko at the Estoril Open on Sunday.

Blake, who had never advanced beyond the quarter-finals on the continent before, won a rain-delayed semi-final over two days and now faces a last test in the title match later on Sunday.

The fourth seed will face experienced clay campaigner Alberto Montanes, the Spanish seventh seed, who booked his spot in the final on Saturday.

Blake trailed by a set to 2003 winner Davydenko but took a 4-2 lead in the second before darkness on Saturday finally forced the contest off court after a frustrating afternoon of rain.

Davydenko, who lost the 2008 final to Roger Federer at the Estadio Nacional, levelled at 4-4 upon their return as the Russian's vast experience on the surface looked like paying off.

But the newly confident Blake fought through a second-set tiebreaker, sweeping into a third set after the Russian put a backhand wide.

Blake consolidated in the third set, sewing up his personal best performance on the surface in two and a half hours.

The American and Montanes have never met, while the 28-year-old Spaniard tries to improve a 13-13 season record and bids for a second title from a sixth career final.

Blake holds a 10-12 career record in finals as he plays only his second on clay after losing last year in Houston.

Blake becomes the second American to reach an Estoril final since Todd Martin in 1999.

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American James Blake and Russian Nikolay Davydenko are going through it in their semifinal match at the Estoril Open in Estoril, Portugal. Rain caused the first suspension and darkness the second.

The match is currently suspended in the second set with Blake up 4-2. Davydenko took the first set 7-6(3).

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Americans Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears won their first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour team title at the Estoril Open on Saturday, when the third-seeded Americans beat Sharon Fichman of Canada and Hungarian Katalin Marosi 2-6, 6-3, 10-5 (Match TB) in 74 minutes.

Kops-Jones and Spears, who has previously made a run to the quarter-final in Miami (l. to Peschke-Raymond) this year, won just eight points on return of serve in the first set but managed to turn around their 13th match of the season.

In the Match Tie-break, Kops-Jones and Spears won three points against serve to open up an 8-4 lead which they coolly converted into their eighth win of the year.

The American duo had fought back from a one-set and 5-0 deficit in Friday’s semi-finals against Julie Coin and Marie-Eve Pelletier for a 3-6, 7-5, 10-3 (Match TB) win.

For Kops-Jones it was her second Sony Ericsson WTA Tour title after partnering Christina Fusano in Quebec City (d. Dubois-Varacova) in November 2007.

Spears has now four tour-level trophies, including 2003 Auckland (w/Ashley), 2004 Vancouver (w/Mattek), 2005 Cincinnati (w/Granville). She also finished runner-up at 2005 Memphis (w/Granville).

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