Haas Outduels Blake in Five-Set Classic
Haas Outduels Blake in Five-Set Classic
By Neil Schlecht
Monday, September 3, 2007
At the end of a five-set test of innumerable twists and turns and jittery
tension, and after seeing three match points he’d earned in the final set
promptly dashed, James Blake charged the net at 3-3 in the decisive tiebreak.
Tommy Haas lofted a backhand lob deep over Blake’s head. The American raced
to the baseline, caught up to the ball and whipped a reply over his shoulder.
The return from Haas landed short, and Blake again chipped his backhand and
came in. The German, whose vaunted one-handed backhand is one of the most
beautiful and lethal weapons in the game, might have ripped a wicked passing
shot to either side of the court.
But he went right back to the topspin lob, which he artfully caressed over
the desperately outstretched racquet of Blake.
"I just felt like, OK, let's try it again,” said Haas. “It went over his
head again and went in. What a point, yeah. I think if I would have lost that
point, the crowd would have gone absolutely ballistic.”
That gorgeously executed shot gave Haas, rather than Blake, a 4-3 advantage
in the tiebreak. It was just one of 307 points played during the match, but
Blake didn’t have another recovery in him.
There were numerous recoveries throughout the afternoon by the veterans, two
photogenic players who had survived brutal five-set tests en route to this
encounter, in addition to bouncing back from injuries and personal tragedy.
The final score in the German’s favor was 4-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-0, 7-6 (4).
Said Blake, “It's pretty tough, but I feel like I had all the conditions in
my favor today. I had the crowd on my side. Court conditions. The courts are
suited to my game.”
He continued, “Any time you get in a fifth-set tiebreaker, it's clearly a crapshoot. Just about anyone can beat anyone on
this tour in a tiebreaker. When it comes down to one tiebreaker for a match,
absolutely anything can happen.”
Neither Blake nor Haas could sustain an advantage in this fourth-round match
long enough to capture two consecutive sets and a decisive lead. Rather, they
alternated sets, with Blake playing flawless tennis in the first, Haas
responding in kind in the next set, and Blake roaring back to take the third.
The momentum stunningly reversed course once more, when Haas racked up
winners and blanked Blake in a 6-0 fourth set.
At 2-0 in the final set, Blake had suddenly lost eight straight games. It
appeared that the match was not just slipping, but sprinting, away from him.
But more twists remained. Blake stubbornly climbed back into the match,
knotting the final set at 4-4 and sending the partisan crowd into a
full-blown frenzy. With Haas serving to stave off defeat, in the longest game
of the afternoon, Blake got his three match points. But each time Haas roared
back and extinguished the American’s hopes with a blistering service winner.
The decisive tiebreak followed a similar see-saw pattern: Haas snatched an
early mini-break, and Blake again leveled the score.
Until those devilish, and divine, lobs.
ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM - Men's Singles - 4th Round
Tommy Haas GER (10) 4 6 3 6 7(7)
James Blake USA (6) 6 4 6 0 6(4)
- Blake had led 3-1 in head-to-head match-ups prior to today, having won all
three previous encounters on hard courts.
- Match stats are nearly mirror images: Haas had 18 aces, 69 winners and 39
unforced errors; Blake, 18 aces, 75 winners and 38 unforced errors.
- Blake entered the match as the winningest player on hard courts in 2007.
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