CATHERINE JUN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Andre Agassi approaches the net during his first round victory over American James Blake.
By Pauline Vu
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
You know those people who do things so easily that watching them you can’t help but think, “It can’t be that hard”?
James Blake is not one of them.
The 21-year-old Blake, a wild card entry at the Mercedes Benz Cup, lost 6-0, 7-6(7-3) to No. 3 seed Andre Agassi Tuesday night at UCLA’s LATC.
“Today it almost turned into more of a battle than I cared to have,” Agassi said.
That’s because Blake’s tenacity made it into a battle. He was all over the court, running for every wayward shot, and, in the first set, always reaching for a ball that more often than not eluded his racket. When he did get a piece of it, it certainly wasn’t a good enough piece to return over the net.
But he definitely tried.
“He’s always getting down for volleys, he’s always putting in that little bit of extra effort,” Agassi said.
No matter. Agassi blitzed through the first set in just 18 minutes.
“He was running me around without much effort early on,” Blake said. “He played the way Andre Agassi tends to play: come out firing, and I guess I wasn’t ready for it.”
The second set was a different story, and Blake let everyone know it with an 119 mile per hour ace to close the point gap to 40-30. When he evened the score at 1-1 he tiredly raised both fists.
“Sometimes winning 6-0 isn’t the best thing to happen out there,” Agassi said. “You get on top of them early, they’re thinking, ‘Might as well let my game fly because it’s not gonna get worse than this.’ And sometimes they can really swing on you and it’ll turn into a dogfight.”
When the set was tied 3-3 Blake made his biggest move so far, breaking Agassi for the first time to take his first lead. The fast-paced rally for the fourth point ended to the audiences’ cheers and whistles when Blake hit a short backhand that barely cleared the net, and Agassi lobbed the ball long.
The tiebreak mirrored the path of the match. Agassi went up 5-0 before Blake closed the gap to 5-3. But Blake sent the ball into the net and Agassi hit a crosscourt shot that Blake couldn’t reach for his final points.
After the match the crowd gave a standing ovation, and that honor was not just for the winner. Blake won several people over with his determination to go for every shot.
But it never looked easy for him. Down by the baseline he’d end up slipping from the sheer exertion of running after and returning Agassi’s strokes. He had to stuggle for every point, wheareas Agassi often won his point quickly. Four times in the second set Agassi didn’t drop a point while serving (Blake did this once).
Blake said that he didn’t stick to his plan of attacking aggressively with his forehand.
“The lesson is to come out with a gameplan, be confident in it, stick to it, and really go for your shots and try to attack from the start,” he said.
Agassi was asked what he thought of all the young players on the tour who look at beating him as a chance to make a name for themselves.
“Gunning for you is okay. I take it as a compliment that these guys give you that kind of respect and go out there and play their hearts out,” he said.
Agassi will play Greg Rusedski next in the second round of the Cup.
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Agassi said at the press conference that no wedding date has been set yet for him and girlfriend Steffi Graf, who is pregnant with his son.
“Absolutely no wedding plans. I wish that we were already (married) and we certainly have the desire to be,” he said. “A lot determines on schedule. I’ve heard rumors about January but the truth of the matter is, that’s just a good guess at what I might work in the schedule.”