James Blake ousts Michael Berrer in exciting opener – Farmers Classic 2011
The 31-year-old, American James Blake made his first breakthrough at making a comeback in the professional circuit by effectively ousting German Michael Berrer 6-2, 6-3 from the Farmers Classic in Los Angeles in their opening round
encounter. The above 30 years Blake, along with Tommy Haas and Robby Ginepri are desperately trying to regain a foothold in the circuit before the commencement of play at Flushing Meadows later this year. The Farmers Classic, a part of the US Open series provides
a perfect opportunity to do so.
The German Berrer, currently ranked at No. 86 had an excellent start to the season by reaching the finals at Zagreb, Croatia where he was runner up to Ivan Dodig. However things have been on a downhill slide since then; he couldn’t
outlast his opening match against Japanese Tatsuma Ito at Atlanta a few weeks back. The No. 90, Blake meanwhile has been plagued by a beeline of injuries and familial problems for a couple of seasons and has been rebuilding confidence by performing
excellently on the challenger circuit.
Tuesday’s match was the two players’ first outing against each other.
Crowds at Straus Stadium witnessed an exhilarating first set with Berrer serving at excellently at 71% against his opponent’s 64%. But Blake scored more match winning points by amassing 10 off his 14 serves, while Berrer was limited
to only 5 from 15. Blake showed superb class by successfully converting 3 breakpoints, breaking his opponent’s back and easily closed the first set 6-2 in his account.
The second set saw an equally brilliant performance by Blake, who managed to steer clear all of his four breakpoint situations while he himself cashed in on his single opportunity to break Berrer’s serve. Blake won the set by a
huge margin at 6-3, by accumulating a total of 34 points against Berrer’s 24.
James Blake will now face his toughest competition to date in the tournament. His second round match is scheduled against second seed Argentinean Juan Martin Del Potro. Del Potro had previously received a bye to the second round
of the Farmers Classic.
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