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January
30, 2006
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Blake
Opens With A Win In Delray Beach
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Delray
Beach, FL (January 30,
2007)—Top
seed James Blake led a group of players who won their
opening round robin matches at the Delray Beach
International Tennis Championships (ITC) Tuesday. Other
round robin winners included No. 3 seed and 2005 ITC
champion Xavier Malisse, American upstart Sam
Querrey, Romanian veteran Andrei Pavel, 2002
titlist Davide Sanguinetti of Italy and Teimuraz
Gabashvili of Russia.
In the final match of the elimination round, Fort
Lauderdale, FL resident Ryan Sweeting defeated fellow
American Michael Russell.
The American Blake, 27, upended compatriot Robert
Kendrick 6-3, 6-2 in only 52 minutes. Blake broke Kendrick three times and didn’t face a break point
himself. Kendrick won only 19 percent of his
second-serve points (4-21).
“It was nice to win comfortably against someone I’ve battled
in the juniors, in college and now at the top level,”
Blake said. “I felt in control, but you never want to
get too comfortable. I was at 15-30 a couple times and was
worried that if he pulled even or ahead, he could take
control with his big serve.”
Blake, who lives in Wesley Chapel, FL, across the
state from Delray Beach, reached a career-best ATP Ranking
of No. 4 in November and is now No. 6. He won five titles
last year, tying him for second with Rafael Nadal and
Nikolay Davydenko behind Roger Federer with
12.
“It feels like I’m making progress at the age of 27, when a
lot of people expect that you won’t,” Blake said.
He made it to the fourth round of the Australian Open this
month (l. to Gonzalez) after defending his title in
Sydney (d. Moya). Blake has a career record of
2-2 in this event.
He said his win over Kendrick helped him forget about
the disappointing Australian Open defeat. “It helps that
it’s an easy trip across the state, and I like playing on
hard courts,” Blake said.
Belgium’s Malisse, 26, beat Colombia’s Alejandro
Falla 6-4, 7-6(6). Malisse broke his opponent
twice and was broken only once himself. The victor took 79
points to 65 for the loser.
Malisse, who lives in Sarasota, across the state of
Florida from Delray Beach, now has a career mark of 21-6 at
the ITC. That gives him the most wins in tournament history.
“I have won 21 matches at Delray Beach. I enjoy playing
here, and it's close to home. The courts today, were nice
and slow for my game.”
The Belgian was runner-up here last year (to Haas), in 2001
(to Gambill) and in 1999 (to Hewitt). In 2005,
he defeated Jiri Novak for the title.
Querrey, 19, ousted Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese
Taipei 7-6(10), 6-4, a day after winning his match to make
the round robin competition. The 6’6” resident of Thousand
Oaks, CA, blasted 20 aces to only four for Lu.
Querrey broke Lu once and saved all seven of the
break points he faced on his own serve.
“I served great today, 20 aces,” Querrey said. “It's
fun to pop all the aces.”
The Californian boosted his ATP Ranking to a career best No.
100 with his third-round finish at the Australian Open
earlier this month (l. to Robredo) and will climb
even higher with his performance at Delray.
Pavel, who turned 33 Saturday, downed Igor Kunitsyn of Russia 6-1, 6-3. The flashy Romanian, who
possesses a blazing backhand, broke his opponent five times
and was broken only once himself. Pavel won 59 points
to only 39 for Kunitsyn. Pavel evened his
career record at 3-3 in this event with the victory, having
won his elimination round match Monday.
Sanguinetti, 34, upset No. 6 seed Philipp
Kohlschreiber of Germany 7-5, 6-3. Sanguinetti broke Kohlschreiber five times and won 75 points to Kohlschreiber’s 64.
The Italian has a career mark of 11-2 at this event. He won
his elimination match Monday, and had last played here in
2002, when he won the tournament crown over Andy
Roddick.
Gabashvili emerged victorious in a two-hour-38-minute
marathon over Kristian Pless of Denmark
7-6(9), 6-7(2), 7-6(5). Each player only broke once, and
Pless actually won more points, 136-130. But
Gabashvili took the big points to prevail for the second
day in a row, having emerged from the elimination round
Monday.
Sweeting, 19, beat Russell 7-6(4), 2-2, with
the loser forced to retire because of an illness. The match
was delayed from Monday because Russell had to fly
from Hawaii where he won a Challenger event in Waikoloa last
week. Sweeting earned his fourth ATP/Davis Cup
victory, evening his career record at 4-4.
Sweeting moved to Fort Lauderdale from his native
Bahamas at the age of 11. “It is my first time playing In
Delray Beach,” he said. “It’s only 30 minutes from my house
in Fort Lauderdale. Having the support of my family and
local friends has given me the extra oomph to my game.” He
also expressed excitement at being named a practice player
for the U.S. Davis Cup match in the Czech Republic
next week.
Sweeting enters the round robin group with No. 8 seed
Vincent Spadea and Simon Greul.
In first-round doubles action Tuesday, wild cards
Jan-Michael Gambill of the U.S. and Rainer
Schuettler of Germany won a barn-burner over Simon
Greul of Germany and American Kevin Kim 6-2, 4-6, 14-12 (Match Tiebreak).
Gambill won the doubles crown here with Andy
Roddick in 2001 (d. Shimada-Wakefield).
He has a career doubles record of 7-3 at this event and
broke a two-match Delray Beach doubles losing streak with
Tuesday’s win.
Third seeds Lukasz Kubot of Poland and
Pavel defeated Konstantinos Economidis and
Teimuraz Gabashvili of Russia 7-6(9), 3-6,
10-7 (Match Tiebreak) while Sanguinetti and Spadea beat Rohan Bopanna of India and Chris
Haggard of South Africa 2-6, 7-6(3), 10-3 (Match
Tiebreak).
Hugo Armando of the U.S. and Malisse downed the German team of Kohlschreiber and
Florian Mayer 6-1, 6-4. In the quarterfinals,
Armando-Malisse will play the second-seeded
American duo of Eric Butorac and Travis
Parrott, who beat fellow Americans Chris
Drake and Scott Lipsky 6-3, 6-4 Tuesday. |
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