If this match was horse race, James Blake would have been riding into the last two furlongs ten lengths behind the impressive Paul Henri Mathieu and punters would be counting their winnings.
But from out of nowhere the seemingly down and out horse, Blake decides to challenge Mathieu and drives forward with his ears pricked to force a photo finish.
In dramatic scenes the photo finish reveals Blake has won by a nose and everyone is thinking how on earth did that happen.
This Davis Cup match was fantastic. It was a classic topsy turvy encounter you would have expected from Henman at Wimbledon. The court was very fast and both players were hitting their groundstrokes as hard as possible.
Mathieu had looked impressive throughout the match, never letting his head drop even when going a set down and 2 sets to 1 down, and it was no surprise when in the final set at four games all he broke the tiring Blake and won the chance to serve for the match.
This is never an easy game for anyone in such a close encounter but Mathieu made it look easy as he went 40-15 up giving him two match points.
Mathieu then bangs in a first serve and I am thinking game over however my tip Blake has other ideas and returns with a powerful forhand. This point was incredible as Mathieu had a short forehand to win the game, but Blake somehow mustered up the energy to hook it back into play and eventually win the point.
Mathieu then hit another first serve on the second match point but again Blake hit the return twice as hard back at him, won the point and went on to break the Frenchman.
From then on I knew there was only going to be one winner, as mentally from having two match points on your own serve to being broken must have been devasting for Mathieu and Blake won the set 7-5.
I have never seen such a close match and people who say players are not bothered about Davis Cup because you can’t win ranking points are clearly wrong with this battle a prime example. You only had to look to the sidelines at Roddick up on his feet leading the support for Blake to see what this win meant to the Americans.
Final Score : Blake d Mathieu 76(5) 67(3) 63 36 75
My other tip Philipp Kohlschrieber won the first set against David Ferrer but then lost the next three in another below par performance. D Ferrer d P Kohlschrieber 67(3) 63 64 62
Check out more results at the Davis Cup website.
2 responses so far ↓
Richard // April 12, 2008 at 5:00 pm |
I feel that whoever put a bet on mathieu to win deserved to lose their money, he wasnt vals, he hasnt got a lot of top level experience, big game experience or any ‘real’ experience really. He did well in last years stells artois championships and now everyone thinks hes feds when he beat samps at wimbs. However, i feel he has promise and will be a top 5 player (assuming he controls his temper – as seen at wimbs in his dubs match)
stepney88 // April 20, 2008 at 9:02 pm |
Really good to see Blake doing well after all the hard things he’s had to deal with in his life!