James Blake vs JM Del Potro, LA.

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  • Blake in 2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Blake in 3

    Votes: 3 13.0%
  • Del Potro in 2

    Votes: 18 78.3%
  • Del Potro 3

    Votes: 2 8.7%

  • Total voters
    23

AndyArodRoddick

Professional
This match surely needs a thread. Blake is playing his best tennis since I dont know, 08-09 maybe.
Should be a thriller imo, cause you all remember that AO10 match.

Heart saying Blake in 3, but mind Del Potro in 3.

//edit: ao10, not ao09....
 
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Del Potro in 2. Too much firepower and too much consistency for an aging Blake.
 
Ok, your opinion, but how and why?! Delpo isnt playing better atm than 10 AO open..kinda same IMO. And Blake is playing better.
Delpo is playing a gazillion times better than AO 10. Other than the Kukushkin demolition, his last match was in Wimbledon, where he was playing great on his worst surface and serving well. Back on hard courts, J.Blake in his prime would be lucky to get a set.
 
Ok, your opinion, but how and why?! Delpo isnt playing better atm than 10 AO open..kinda same IMO. And Blake is playing better.

But lets see.

wasn't AO 10 the last match delpo played before undergoing wrist surgery a few months later? He had reinjured his wrist in kooyong, despite which he played injured @ AO 10
 
captureyc.jpg


Delpo won the toss and chose to receive, and Fergus Murphy calls, "Time."
 
Slow start for Delpo, looking like a passenger. He needs to wake up.

Edit: Hold at love is a good first service game.
 
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Delpo breaks even though he looks second best right now.

Blake looks like he has been playing for the last few weeks and Delpo looks like he hasn't. Which is the case mind you.
 
Delpo breaks even though he looks second best right now.

Blake looks like he has been playing for the last few weeks and Delpo looks like he hasn't. Which is the case mind you.

exactly! :)

Dell's rapidly ramping up, getting James all frustrated

too bad they don't have any replay here :(
 
Great hold from Blake. Now onto putting some pressure on Potro and if he gets the break we have a match.
 
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Something tells me Blake's winning this match tonight.

Delpo's not serving a very blazing percentage, and he's making WAY too many errors, and on putaway shots too. He's actually keeping Blake around.
 
Delpo is off. His serve is like in San jose or Memphis (very poor) and he isn't hitting it as well as he normally can.

Blake is attack, attack, attack. He is either hitting winners or errors. He hits it way harder than Delpo on average.
 
Del Potro is so defensive today. Just putting balls back in play and grinding. But that seems to work well against Blake.
How do you play offensively against Blake?

Delpo is a balanced player who is comfortable hitting from behind the baseline, especially against offensive players like Blake or Soderling.

Blake is ahead 3-2 in set 2 after breaking back and holding.
 
thx ... not wrong that I know of ... I was just checkin ... hadnt really heard of a top male player w/2-H FH before
Ooh, I misunderstood you. I thought you were implying him being wrong. I didn't know either.

But yes, there haven't been many, if any, pros with 2HFH in recent years on the men's side. Bartoli and a few other women have 2HFH though.

Edit: Tiebreak time. Blake playing better so he has a good chance of winning this.
 
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Oof, a wild forehand from Del Potro let's Blake off the hook there, back on serve in the tiebreak 2-1.

[EDIT]

Which Blake very quickly hands back. 3-1 Del Potro.
 
GSM Del Potro; 6-4, 7-6(3).

Delpo played bad mostly. Blake played great and battled hard. Blake was always going to be tricky opponent in your first match after a prolonged break from play so it's relieving just to be through here and hopefully the rust will be shaken off in the next match.
 
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GSM Del Potro; 6-4, 7-6(3).

Delpo played bad mostly. Blake played great and battled hard. Blake was always going to be tricky opponent in your first match after a prolonged break from play so it's relieving just to be through here and hopefully the rust will be shaken off in the next match.

somehow I think of "bad mostly" and "rust" as going more with a 3 setter, instead of the straight sets Delpo win I and 9 others voted for on the poll before the match began! james did well, but Juan did better! :p

Delpo is Back in the US of A!!!
 
somehow I think of "bad mostly" and "rust" as going more with a 3 setter, instead of the straight sets Delpo win I and 9 others voted for on the poll before the match began! james did well, but Juan did better! :p
It was 2 very tight sets though. ;-)

The level of play is relative to their abilities. Delpo's serve was poor until the end of the match were he finally got it going. Blake took advantage of some weak second serves. The quality of Delpo's ground-strokes fluctuated throughout the match (though progressively got better) and he sprayed far too many errors from the forehand side. He also wasn't hitting as hard as he did last month and just didn't look sharp (hence the rust). He didn't play that well, but it can be partly attributed to how Blake played and constantly put Delpo under pressure and on the back foot. I imagine it would be somewhat hard to adjust to the pace of ball with which Blake hits with.
 
Man, I really thought Blake had a good chance here. Delpo was not playing well at all, and Blake was hitting well.

Blake had no business losing this match. His bullheadedness in not wanting to change things up kills him every time. He does not need to go for the home run on every shot. He needs to think out there more.
 
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