In the end, the match was a heartbreaker, but you're unlikely ever to see a guy who handles getting his heart broke with more style, grace, and unflinching honesty than James Blake.
But before we get into that, I'd suggest you're also unlikely ever to see a match that better demonstrates the value of Hawkeye electronic line-calling than today's compelling, 7-6 in the fifth win by Tommy Haas over Blake. The last two points of the tiebreaker were both decided by Hawkeye; the first one, a blazing, slap-shot service return by Blake (who was down match-point) was called good but challenged by Haas, but original call was shown to be correct.
The very next point was another match-point with Haas serving. He hit an apparent ace wide to the deuce court, and Blake challenged; Hawkeye confirmed that the ball was, indeed, a match-ending ace. In both cases, the ball was in by a hair. And while we don't know how either player would have reacted if Hawkeye had not been in use (they might have just played the call; both men are good sports), the fact that it was there simply eliminated any possibility of the match ending in controversy.
And perhaps more importantly, Hawkeye's presence kept either player from freaking out when the call was made, because each man knew that he had recourse to as much justice as any tennis player has a right to expect, and certainly loads more than he had two years ago, before Hawkeye. So Hawkeye is not just an electronic line-calling system, it could just as easily be called the Hawkeye Emotional Meltdown-Averting System.
You saw both of those balls; they were as close to being "out" as you can get.
I did raise this issue with Blake at his press conference after the match, asking: Did this match demonstrate the value of Hawk Eye conclusively?
He replied:
Of course, this is the kind of reasonableness we've come to expect from Blake, and it's also appears to be one of the reasons a fair number of people regard him with mild contempt and cynicism, and link his fine character to whatever "weakness" it is that prevents a guy who is clearly one of the six or eight or 10 best players in the world from being ranked higher. You want proof positive that human nature is dark, restless, and - this may be the fundamental problem - jealous of the good? Look how eager some people are to position Blake's decency as some sort of fatal flaw, or sign of "softness".
That decency was on full display yesterday during the post-mortems. During his presser, Blake had a number of opportunities to cop-out or take a plea, and on a number of issues. That he didn't was telling and refreshing. When he was asked if fatigue played a factor in the match, given that he'd been on court for 12 hours in 4 matches, he said:
Liz Clark of the Washington Post asked Blake what place getting that first five-set win under his belt at this US Open would find in his trove of memories, and he answered:
Among other things, this is a kind thing to say because of the way it is likely to make Tommy Haas feel; why should Blake feel badly about losing to a player of Haas's class? Which leads to another moment that helped make this one of those press conferences that could make a reporter feel pretty good about what he was doing - and who he was doing it with. When someone pointed out that Haas, like Blake, has been through some rough sailing, Blake said:
I was curious about how Blake felt about fifth-set tiebreakers, and asked if he liked them, and to comment on how tough it is to play them in a situation like today's. He said:
Anyway, I recommend reading the entire press conference transcript. It was truly a humble and classy performance, and I say that even though Blake called me out when he was asked to ask how sharply the loss hurt:
""It's going to sting for a little while. Hopefully in a day or two I'll look back and say it's still not a terrible summer. Made the finals of Cincinnati. Won New Haven. Fourth round here. Finals of L.A. As Peter liked to point out, that was a terrible loss to Stepanek. Otherwise I felt I was playing pretty well."
Okay, okay. . .so it wasn't such a terrible loss to Stepanek - especially in light of the way Stepanek played this summer. I take the point and promise to cut you some slack on a future occasion when you need it.
But today, James, you don't need it.