It's been a long year for James Blake, hardly the longest of his life but one of the toughest professionally. No. 4 just four years ago, he's now No. 135 and struggling to win matches. In the U.S. Open Series, Blake's bread and butter, he went 3-5, then lost in straights at Flushing Meadows to Novak Djokovic in the third round. We haven't heard from Blake since, and if the If Stockholm Open didn't bestow a wild card upon the former champ, I wouldn't be writing about him here.
Blake drew seventh-seeded Thomaz Bellucci in the first round, a difficult opening match. Although he's cooled off lately, the lefty Brazilian is young, has good feel and smacks his shots. He serves like Feliciano Lopez, throwing his body into his delivery, with the grunt to match. Unlike Lopez, he has a more reliable backhand (two hands) and is quite consistent from the baseline. For a go-for-broke pro like Blake, that's a tough assignment. I suppose that you can't complain, though, after being handed a free pass into the first round—and the € 5,440, minimum, that comes with it.
After 30 minutes, there was little to suggest the match would go Blake's way. He was down a set, struck 17 unforced errors, and his opponent had lost just a single point on serve. But as the second set progressed, Blake, who always hits with pop, started to keep his fireballs in the court. The backhand was, at times, as potent as the forehand. It may have intimidated Bellucci, who played further and further back as the match went on. By the third set, Bellucci, consciously or not, was retreating the instant points began.
Bellucci nearly overcame this tactical flaw—his shots can make up for it—but he wasn't able to do it at the most critical times. Blake saved break points in his first three service games of the third set—four in all—putting pressure on Bellucci to hold. At 4-4, he cracked, hitting four errors to give Blake a lead he wouldn't squander. For Bellucci, this match showed what he still has to work on. For Blake, it showed that this year, as dour as it's been, isn't over yet.
—Ed McGrogan