Blake keeps his cool

Top-seeded American reaches the second round in Indianapolis

Last updated: 16th July 2008   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Blake keeps his cool

Blake: Winning start

Also see

Top seed James Blake overcame a slow start to record a 7-6 (7-2) 6-2 victory over Dudi Sela in the first round of the Indianapolis Tennis Championships.

Blake, ranked eighth in the world, has been out of action since his second round defeat to Rainer Schuettler at Wimbledon - and the lack of matches clearly showed early on.

And despite suffering an early break, missing chances to close out the first set and then seeing Sudi force the tie-break, Blake kept his cool to reach the second round.

"There were still some testy moments out there, especially playing a tie-breaker after you serve for a set," Blake said.

"That can demoralise a lot of players sometimes.

Tantrums

"You've got to put that behind you. There's nothing you can do to change it. When I was a kid, I probably would have whined and cried and thrown tantrums about that, but not anymore.

"Just put your head down and face what's in front of you... You can't let one point affect more than that one point."

Blake will now face Jun Woong-sun after the South Korean beat Australian Chris Guccione 6-4 7-6 (7-4).

Fourth-seeded Sam Querrey joined his fellow countryman in the next round after he defeated Go Soeda 6-4 6-4.

Vincent Spadea will take on Querrey in the second round after he overcame Donald Young 6-2 6-4.

There was an upset in the first round as Rajeev Ram came from set points down to beat sixth-seeded Fabrice Santoro 7-6 (8-6) 6-4.

ATP Indianapolis. Click here to bet.