James Blake overcomes Mikhail Kukushkin to clear the qualifying competition – Swiss Indoors 2011
Former world number four, James Blake of the United States had to go through some tough channels before booking a place in the main rounds of the Davidoff Swiss Indoors, defeating the fifth seeded Kazakh opponent, Mikhail Kukushkin,
in the final round qualies on Sunday afternoon.
The second seeded American took one hour and forty eight minutes of play to wind up the three-setter at 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-0, to make it through to the main draw of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 500 event.
The contest was played on the indoor hard courts of the St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland, with Blake coming out as the winner after a stiff competition. The American fought hard to pocket the opening set in a tie breaker round
but frittered away his early advantage in the game to let Kukushkin back in business. The fifth seeded Kazakh took down Blake in the second set but the American came out firing in the final set to blow him out of the competition in an assertive fashion.
Blake registered a straight sets victory over Kukushkin in the opening round at Winston-Salem earlier this season but had to toil a bit harder this time round to take down the Kazakh. 31-year-old American delivered merely 49 per
cent of his serve on target and clinched 31 out of 44 first serve points to come out as the winner in the end. His fifth seeded opponent closely followed him in all segments but Blake remained one step ahead of him all the way through.
Blake registered five breaks of serve out of his nine opportunities, while Kukushkin converted four out of six break chances, yet losing the matchup. Both contestants traded a serve break in the opener to drag the set into a tie
breaker round. Blake took the upper hand in the competition after pocketing the first set at 7-6(4) but hit back strongly in the next set with three cracking serve breaks to level the matchup at one-all. The final set was an all-American show, with Blake breaking
Kukushkin in every single game to race away to victory at 6-0, getting into the main rounds of the Davidoff Swiss Indoors.
Blake will play his opening round match of the main draw against his fellow compatriot, world number eight, Mardy Fish, on Tuesday afternoon. Fish is seeded at number five in the tournament and is among the strong contenders to
make it to the ATP World Tour Finals in London.
Tags: