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Blake savors tough Davis Cup win
While Blake boasts a 12-8 overall record in Davis Cup singles, he was only 4-7 in live rubbers heading into Friday's contest.
James Blake wanted to prove his critics wrong, but most of all he wanted to prove his Davis Cup teammates right.
The American did both on Friday with a 6-3, 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/3) victory over Mikhail Youzhny that gave the United States a commanding 2-0 lead over Russia in the World Group final.
"A few people have talked about whether or not I was going to be able to come through in live rubbers. I only won one this year," Blake said. "I wanted to prove that I was tough enough to hang in a tough situation, in a big match, in a final that I've never even been in before."
While Blake boasts a 12-8 overall record in Davis Cup singles, he was only 4-7 in live rubbers heading into Friday's contest.
This year he had won just one of his three meaningful singles matches in the first three rounds.
For one scary moment, it seemed Blake might be headed for another disappointment, when he dropped his serve to love while serving for the match in the fourth set against Youzhny.
He rebounded, however, to win the tiebreaker and avoid a fifth set.
"He just was positive throughout, he kept going for his shots," said US captain Patrick McEnroe. "To lose when you're trying to serve for the match happens. The key to me was how James kept coming back. He was up a break in the second set and it went to the tiebreak there. He just dealt with adversity really, really well in this match."
More than silencing his critics, Blake said he was glad to have a chance to justify the faith of McEnroe and his Davis Cup teammates, Andy Roddick and Bob and Mike Bryan.
"They've believed in me the whole year, so I wanted to prove them right," he said. "They've had a lot of confidence in me every time.
"It means a lot after some lows of losing tough matches to have your teammates pick you up. That's what these guys have done for me any time I have had that situation.
"Now it's one of the highs," he said. "I hope we stay on a high and by the end of the weekend we're celebrating."
That seemed a likely prospect, with the US needing just one more point from the remaining three matches - starting with Saturday's doubles pitting the Bryan brothers against Igor Andreev and Nikolay Davydenko.
