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.”