Posted at 9:11 a.m., Monday, May 21, 2007
United States loses to Chile in World Team Cup tennis
Associated Press
DUESSELDORF, Germany — James Blake and Marty Fish lost in singles and the U.S. team dropped its opening match to Chile at the round-robin World Team Cup today.Fernando Gonzalez defeated Blake 6-4, 7-5 and Nicolas Massu beat Fish 6-4, 7-6 (1) in the clay-court event. The top-ranked doubles team of Bob and Mike Bryan gave the United States its only point against Chile with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Jorge Aguilar and Julio Peralta.
The Americans face Argentina tomorrow. The eight-nation field is split into two groups, with the winners of each advancing to Saturday's final. Argentina, Chile, Sweden and the U.S. are in the Red Group, with Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany and Spain in the Blue Group.
In Monday's other match, the Czech Republic defeated Spain 2-1.
Blake was up 5-2 in the second set, but Gonzalez won the last five games — including the final 11 points — to close out the match.
"He played well and I didn't at the end of the set," Blake said. "I thought I'd played well to get to that point, and then I just got a little tentative and he took advantage and served unbelievable at that point."
While he still has at least two more matches here to prepare for the French Open, Blake said next week's Grand Slam event was not uppermost on his mind.
"I'd like to get some wins for my team," he said. "It's not much fun right now when you disappoint your teammates, teammates that you're such good friends with and have their faith in you. To lose the way I did is frustrating right now and that's all I'm thinking about. I'm not too worried about Paris right now."
