Blake- Another big disappointment

[MOUKA]

With Roddick pulling out of the Houston Clay Court Championship, Blake should have been feeling pretty good about his chances of winning his first clay court tournament. Another good sign was that Tommy Haas was knocked out of the field as well.

However, in another absolutely disappointing display of will/determination, Blake is out in the semifinal. He actually should have lost the quarter final against Juan Monaco. Watching it live, I can confidently say that he was outplayed, but was fortunate to win the final set in a tie-break.

The more I watch him play, the more I root for his opponent. He is not an intelligent tennis player at all. He has incredible speed and can hit the hell out of the ball, but so can most juniors.
What an embarassment.

[rommil]

Hmm that's a bit of a strong statement considering the present US players are really not that adept to clay.

[jetlee2k]

something is wrong with the current tennis players.. They play not very smart including Roddick, Blake, Fish, Taylor Dent.. etc.. They are rushing too much and most of the time they "react" to the points rather than patiently setting it up.. Blake and Roddick are the examples.. They just made some very unintelligent choice at the big points..

[tangerine]

Blake makes his first semi-final appearance of the year on his worst surface and that's an embarrassment to you?

Oh, ok.

[vive le beau jeu !]

Originally Posted by tangerine

Blake makes his first semi-final appearance of the year on his worst surface and that's an embarrassment to you?

Oh, ok.

i think he'll gain some confidence on clay from this tournament.
nothing to be ashamed about : it was a good performance to reach the SF, losing to a good claycourter.

[Lambsscroll]

Wind is the great equalizer. I blame the wind for Blakes loss.

[BHud]

In my opinion, American tennis is out of touch at the moment in the way it approaches the sport...juniors are drilled endlessly on stroke mechanics, but minimal attention is paid to the mental art of constructing points. Consequently, our players seem to lack the finesse required to adjust to various surfaces and game styles. Look at our top dogs...Roddick and Blake...when was the last time you saw them think through a point rather than losing patience and trying to overpower their opponent with a quick finish.

Don't get me wrong. U.S. results haven't been bad...and I know we were spoiled with Pete, Andre and the group...but I just don't like the mentally numb way our players approach the sport.

[bluetrain4]

I really wish there was a "Play Clay" movement, whereby more cities constructed clay courts. Obviously, that is expensive and maintenance is a chore, but I'm not advocating elemination of hard courts, simply just more clay courts all around the country. This would probably take a lot of private money, since most municipalities are not bursting with extra funds for clay courts. But, the USTA should at least encourage it with some sort of promotion.

It would allow younger players to learn better point construction out of necessity. And, for serious recretional players who really love the game, it would allow us to save our bodies a little bit. I had never played on clay until last year when I was 33 years old. I couldn't believe the difference in how I felt after 3 sets compared to hard courts.

[Tchocky]

It's really hard for James to play his best tennis without the "J Block" in the house.

[Colpo]

Give Zabaleta the credit. He's a natural claycourter, and Blake isn't. Zabaleta's also a pretty good volleyer (compare him to Verdasco if you disagree). Last, Zabaleta was riding a hot streak, while Blake again between points looked like he was a 6-year-old lost in Grand Central Station. The way they were playing, I would have been disappointed to see Zabaleta lose.

[Morrissey]

Originally Posted by tangerine

Blake makes his first semi-final appearance of the year on his worst surface and that's an embarrassment to you?

Oh, ok.

His worst surface is REAL clay, the red one on European soil against high quality and competent clay courters. That stuff Blake played on was garbage. In other words "har tru" I played on it and it's almost a hardcourt with some dusting on it, I don't call that nonsense real clay. And on a seriously depleted field, how else does a serve and volleyer in Karlovic win the tournament? Zabaleta in a real clay court event wouldn't get past the 2nd round. Karlovic? Who knows, 4th round at best. If Blake considers this a good accomplishment then he really set the bar low.

[tintin]

the USTA should focus on sending the kids to Europe so that from a young age they can learn how to construct points and that baseline tennis is not enough
hit volleys
drop shots and every shot they don't know
south americans and europeans have worked hard to learn how to play on hard courts so why can't the usta do the same
having the media complain about the lack of success of american players is not going to solve the problem
having said that I really think that Sampras,Chang and co were just better players than Blake,Roddick and the rest of them playing right now and that they will never be in the same category,never

[Morrissey]

Originally Posted by tintin

the USTA should focus on sending the kids to Europe so that from a young age they can learn how to construct points and that baseline tennis is not enough
hit volleys
drop shots and every shot they don't know
south americans and europeans have worked hard to learn how to play on hard courts so why can't the usta do the same
having the media complain about the lack of success of american players is not going to solve the problem
having said that I really think that Sampras,Chang and co were just better players than Blake,Roddick and the rest of them playing right now and that they will never be in the same category,never

How about just making some real clay courts over here so they don't have to travel all the way to Europe? The US has enough money to make them. The US tennis of the current generation has become braindead bashing of the ball. Where in prior generations (Sampras, Agassi, Courier, McEnroe) they actually played with some thought, point construction and variety.

[ivan987]

I don't like Blake, he has really ugly strokes, that is the only word word I can describe them with

[tintin]

Originally Posted by Morrissey

How about just making some real clay courts over here so they don't have to travel all the way to Europe? The US has enough money to make them. The US tennis of the current generation has become braindead bashing of the ball. Where in prior generations (Sampras, Agassi, Courier, McEnroe) they actually played with some thought, point construction and variety.

what's wrong with the americans travelling abroad?
foreign players have left their countries to train at Nick'... after they've learned the fondamentals on clay
this is not about money nor facilities if the instructors here do not know how to teach the kids how to actually use all the court when they play and play on every courts and not bash a ball and expect to win;Roddick and Blake are examples of what I meanne is using a one-handed slice all the time that gets crushed by Federer or Haas or Murray now and tries to s/v;the only relies on his forehands to get to net because in the past all they used to do is hit serves and hit forehand;that's it.

I suggest they do the same and put aside the I have money ;I have the best facilities and all that crap if they want to produce decent players in the next 5-10 years

Roddick is 24
Ginepri and Delic 25
Fish is 26
Dent is 26 but so many surgeries for him
blake and Kendrick both 28 already
Russell and K. Kim 29
Gimelslob sorry Gimelstob is 30
Spadea 33

Querrey or Mr Davenport like the call him is only 20 but you can already see he will have movement issues like his countrywoman did

[Colpo]

Originally Posted by Morrissey

His worst surface is REAL clay, the red one on European soil against high quality and competent clay courters. That stuff Blake played on was garbage. In other words "har tru" I played on it and it's almost a hardcourt with some dusting on it, I don't call that nonsense real clay. And on a seriously depleted field, how else does a serve and volleyer in Karlovic win the tournament? Zabaleta in a real clay court event wouldn't get past the 2nd round. Karlovic? Who knows, 4th round at best. If Blake considers this a good accomplishment then he really set the bar low.

Oh, we're going with the "NATIVE" angle now? Har-Tru is a kind of clay court. There are well-maintained Har-Tru courts, and not-so-well-maintained Har-Tru courts - same is true of your beloved "red" clay. I learned to play on a dusty, ill-watered clay court across the pond, and it was no big bargain, believe you me. A well-maintained clay court's a beautiful thing, and we've got PLENTY of those here in America, so don't dog our clay. Martin Verkerk was runner-up at the French 4 years ago - I assume THAT clay court is good enough for you, so how'd that happen? Also, the mattress guy who owns the Houston club spares no expense to get the best of everything, so that bad boy was probably a Hydro Court, which is the sickest, most fun tennis surface I've played on. The big factor is that the US Clay Court Chips gets a so-so draw for starters, and even with that, Blake had a good week by his standards on the stuff. Memo to Swedish Davis Cup team: you can start watering your courts immediately!

[Moose Malloy]

Zabaleta in a real clay court event wouldn't get past the 2nd round.

Zabaleta is a former Hamburg finalist & Rome semifinalist

Karlovic? Who knows, 4th round at best.

Karlovic made the QF at Barcelona last year(beating Davydenko along the way)

[edmondsm]

Thread-Another big dissapointment.

Come on guys, what is Blake supposed to do. He's not slam winner, he's got a limited game and he taken it all the way to 4 in the world. A semi-final on clay is in no way a "big" dissapointment. In good conditions Blake can be a threat on any surface. If his forehand is on there's not much you can do but hang on and hope he cools off, which he usually does.

If he can hang around in the top 10 for another year it will be a huge accomplishment for a guy that probably thought he would never be there going into college.

[JRstriker12]

It's diaspointed to see Blake go out in the Semi's, but not a total bust. It's not like Haas got past Ivo for the finals either.

Man, can you believe that the serve machine won that... on hard-tru???

Hard-Tru must not be as slow as red clay.

[edmondsm]

Originally Posted by JRstriker12

It's diaspointed to see Blake go out in the Semi's, but not a total bust. It's not like Haas got past Ivo for the finals either.

Man, can you believe that the serve machine won that... on hard-tru???

Hard-Tru must not be as slow as red clay.

Is that what they call that green stuff.