Isner, Blake facing off in a third-round match
For the second time in three weeks, John Isner and James Blake took to the court together as friends and doubles partners Wednesday, knowing 24 hours later they would square off in singles.
“Very awkward,” Isner said of what will be only their second meeting on the ATP Tour. “I played him in Atlanta, and it was just an absolute war.”
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Isner needed almost three hours to prevail in that colossal battle 7-6 (8), 6-7 (3), 7-5 thanks in large part to 30 aces — a punishing number that didn’t surprise Blake, who said seeing millions of Isner serves in practice doesn’t make them any easier to return. Often, it’s still guesswork.
“If you guess wrong, bad luck,” Blake said. “You move on to the next point. If you guess right, it’s still not easy. The only thing you really need to do is keep your head, keep focused and realize that you might only get one or two real opportunities throughout a whole match and do your best to take advantage of those.”
Blake also said he served as well in Tuesday’s upset of 2010 Legg Mason champion David Nalbandian as he has in two years, and his aggressive style will test the 6-foot-9 Isner’s court coverage abilities. But the hitting partners at Saddlebrook Tennis Academy in Tampa, Fla., don’t see their third-round meeting as a grudge match.
“We all get along so great,” Blake said of the current generation of American men, which also includes Andy Roddick, Sam Querrey and twin doubles players Bob and Mike Bryan. “I’ve heard stories of generations past that used their dislike for fuel to be better than their compatriots. But for us, we all want to do well because we want to do it together.”
If there’s any battle, it’s over grocery and takeout bills, especially since Isner moved into Blake’s neighborhood.
“I’ve eaten quite a bit of his food,” Isner said. “But he’s been getting me back lately. He knows my member number at our neighborhood and puts everything on there. I don’t know his, so I gotta find it out somehow.”
