Blake advances by forfeit
-
- August
- 28
Well that was anticlimactic. One game into the third set and it’s all over at Ashe. Steve Darcis of Belgium waved the match to an end, handing James Blake a forfeit victory in their second round match. Darcis’s back locked up early in the day until he felt he couldn’t continue.
I asked him what he would have done if he’d been leading the match in the third set. He couldn’t be sure but thought if he was up two sets to none he probably would have toughed it out. He’d won the first set 6-4—by his own admission because Blake was playing brutally. Especially at the net. Once Blake cleaned up his game and stopped hitting gimmes into the net he started winning. He took the second set 6-3, Darcis grimacing in pain all the way.
When Blake won the first game of the third set, Darcis waved the white flag. Â
Blake, the No. 9 seed, will face good friend and fellow American Mardy Fish in the third round. Fish beat 24-seed Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Blake will be in Fish’s wedding party in September. At least that’s the plan. If Blake wins in straight sets Fish might find a way to lose his invitation in the mail. Â
This entry was posted
on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 5:38 pm by Jake Thomases.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Print
| 
Email
