James Blake Shows Signs Of Life, Loses Five-Set Classic To No. 4 Del Potro

James Blake lost in the second round of the Australian Open Wednesday in a five-set classic to US Open champ Jun Martin Del Potro. The match went four hours and 19 minutes and ended at 6-4 6-7(3) 5-7 6-3 10-8 after Del Potro was able to break Blake in the fifth. Blake, after the match:

“As soon as I let any ball sit up a little, he was taking it to me,” Blake said. “That’s my goal too, and I had chances at them and made some mistakes. That’s the difference. You miss a couple balls and he’s moving on, and I’m not. But that’s why he won the US Open and is No. 4 in the world.”

“It’s tough to rank the [five set losses] but right now it hurts pretty bad,” said Blake. “I had plenty of messages from people back home who were up until 5am watching me, and I don’t even want to respond to many. I just feel bad that they were up watching and are probably going to sleep a little disappointed. Luckily for me they will all be my friends tomorrow, which will help me get through after I stop beating myself up for a few hours or few days.”

Blake came into the Australian Open on the heels of what could be considered the worst season on his career. His best result in a grand slam was making it to the fourth round of the Aussie Open, although he bowed out of the French and Wimbledon in the first round. He entered play at the first grand slam of the season this week unranked after being No. 4 in the world about three years ago.

All of this makes what happened Tuesday night in Melborne both surprising, and encouraging, for Blake’s season. Sure, he didn’t win, and in the end he only made it to the second round, but because of his low seed, he was forced to play the fourth-ranked player in the world so early in the tournament. He showed, however, that he may once again have the game to compete with the top players. Hopefully Blake can build on this performance over the next few months and find himself in a better position for the final three grand slams.