I feel like I’ve been watching James Blake lose tough matches all of my life, from the  five-set defeat to Lleyton Hewitt in the 2001 U.S. Open to the brilliant fifth-set tiebreaker agaisnt Agassi in 2005 to his defeat to Fernando Gonzalez in Bejing that cost him an 2008 Olympic medal to early this morning in Australia against Del Potro.   I flipped on the TV shortly after 5 a.m. this morning to see him go up 7-6 in the fifth.  James! I yelled, ecstatic, happy to see him pushing the big Argentine, and believing he could win.  But Del Potro hung tough and the next James! out of my mouth was the more familiar, the “Oh no, why did you do that?” way of saying it, the way you might question a close relative about a choice you find dubious. In the final games, Blake hit some brilliant winners, but made a few more mistakes, and Del Potro got the better of him and broke him at 8-all, and then served it out.  Another five-set loss for Blake, who at the age of 30 has seen his ranking fall all the way to 45, needed this one more than ever.  It could have been a huge boost for him to move back up the rankings.

Blake is now 4-13 in five set matches over his career.    I do remember him winning a key four-set match in the Davis Cup 2007 final against Mikhail Youzhny that helped to seal the championship for the U.S., and the next spring he came back from match points against him to beat Paul Henri-Mathieu in five sets in the U.S. – Franch Davis Cup 2008 quarterfinal.  He has won some big wons, just not in the Grand Slams.  Also, more importantly, Blake has been a gentlemen in the losses, and today hugged Del Potro and congratulated him after the match.  While it’s painful, there’s certainly no shame in losing in five sets at this level against the No. 4 seed, nine years your junior.  Good effort, James.  I’ll be pulling for you in that next fifth set.

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