BEIJING — James Blake won the first match in Olympic tennis Sunday, erasing a set point in the second set and beating Chris Guccione of Australia 6-3, 7-6 (3).

Making his Olympic debut, Blake held every service game and earned the only break of the match for a 5-3 lead in the first set. The 28-year-old American faced a set point at 5-6 in the second set but held, then hit five winners in the tiebreaker.

When Blake smacked an ace on match point, he threw a fist and shouted "Yeah!" as the impartial stadium crowd of 4,000 applauded.

"Definitely more nerves than a normal match," Blake said. "I tend to not really get nervous when I'm out on a tennis court, but today was a little different."

The start of the tournament was delayed 2½ hours because of rain, interrupting matches involving Roger Federer and Serena Williams, then began under thick smog.

Also, fourth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia beat Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 6-4, 6-2, and No. 12 Fernando Gonzalez, who carried the flag for Chile in the opening ceremony, defeated Sun Peng of China 6-4, 6-4.

While Blake waited to play through the rain delays, he watched other events on TV, including Michael Phelps' record performance to win a gold medal in the 400-meter individual medley.

"Watching Michael Phelps set a world record, it was something that was special to me because it made me realize how many people are inspired by him, and that I'm now in the position to have that opportunity to go out there and get a medal for my country," Blake said. "Today was hopefully the first step toward that."