American knocks out partner Blake again
For the second time in two tournaments, John Isner prevailed in a civil war against friend, neighbor and doubles partner James Blake, this time with the spoils a place in the Legg Mason Tennis Classic quarterfinals.
The 7-6 (0), 1-6, 7-6 (4) victory Thursday wasn’t pretty for the 6-foot-9 Isner, who sprayed forehands but blasted serves and improved to a career 8-1 in third-set tiebreaks at William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center.
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“I don’t like playing friends, period,” said the 11th-seeded Isner, who will face No. 3 Viktor Troicki on Friday. “But when you do play them, you want to do it deep in the tournament. It was just unfortunate that we drew each other pretty early on.”
Blake, who also lost in three sets to Isner in Atlanta two weeks ago, argued that playing his pal was easier than losing to him. Despite winning more points on his serve (72-70) and return (40-33), Blake was angrier at squandering a break point at 3-3 in the third set than he was at his 6-foot-9 opponent. After the taxing evening, the pair withdrew from doubles.
“John and I are still going to be neighbors, still going to be golf buddies, still going to be going out to dinner plenty and cheering each other on,” Blake said. “I’m upset now, but it has nothing to do with him.”
Isner was joined in the quarterfinals by another American, Donald Young, whose 6-3, 6-3 win over Michael Russell served as revenge for an 0-6, 3-6 loss to the same player in Atlanta. Young will face No. 7 seed Marcos Baghdatis, who won twice Thursday, both times in three sets following Wednesday’s rain delay.
Top-seeded Gael Monfils and his quarterfinal opponent on Friday, No. 6 seed Janko Tipsarevic, also both won twice to advance. Monfils started the day with a 6-3, 7-6 (3) second-round win over Ryan Sweeting then prevailed in the third round against No. 15 Dmitry Tursunov 6-2, 7-6 (9).
No. 5 seed Fernando Verdasco, who beat No. 9 Nikolay Davydenko 6-4, 7-5, will face Radek Stepanek, a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 winner over Jarkko Nieminen, in another quarterfinal.
