U.S. one win from 1st Davis Cup title since ’95
Blake, Roddick give team 2-0 lead over Russia
 Jonathan Ferrey / Getty Images James Blake celebrates after winning the second set against Mikhail Youzhny of Russia during the Davis Cup final on Friday in Portland, Ore. |
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PORTLAND, Ore. - Even when James Blake was struggling in his Davis Cup match, he knew his teammates were behind him.
Blake fed off their support and held off feisty Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (3), 7-6 (3) Friday night to give the United States a 2-0 lead over Russia in the Davis Cup final.
“They’ve believed in me the whole year, so I wanted to prove them right, to be honest,” Blake said of the U.S. team. “They’ve had confidence in me every time.”
Blake’s victory got the U.S. within one win of its first Davis Cup title since 1995. Earlier, Andy Roddick cruised past Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 in the opening match on the hard court at Memorial Coliseum.
Bob and Mike Bryan can wrap it up for the U.S. by winning their doubles match against Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko and Igor Andreev on Saturday.
The crowd was on its feet when Blake went ahead in the final tiebreaker and Youzhny hit into the net for the U.S. victory.
Blake, ranked 13th in the world, took a 5-2 first-set lead in a game that featured him making a spectacular return, running back to the baseline and hitting backward over his head. After the point Blake pumped his fists and Roddick joined the spectators in wild cheers.
But Blake appeared to tire in the second set, and 19th-ranked Youzhny went up 4-3. Blake talked out loud to himself, saying ‘C’mon, c’mon.”
Blake recovered to win the second set, but ran into trouble again in the third, when Youzhny won the tiebreaker.
It was U.S. captain Patrick McEnroe and his teammates who pulled him through.
“Every time I came over I saw Patrick with a fist pump saying, ‘Keep doing what you’re doing,’ That’s the best feeling,” Blake said. “That’s the confidence I talked about that my teammates have, that if I play my game I’m going to give myself the best chance to win.”
The marathon match, which Blake called the biggest win of his career so far, lasted 3 hours, 28 minutes.
Roddick threw his hands up in triumph after Tursunov’s final return landed long in the first match. Roddick, ranked No. 6 in the world, improved to 6-0 in Davis Cup play this year.
“It’s kind of like ‘so close but so far away.’ There’s no celebration,” he said. “It’s one match. The celebration will be saved for when we win, if we win.”
Roddick took the first set after he hit an 146-mph serve that No. 34 Tursunov returned long, ending a game that went to deuce four times. Roddick let out a growl after holding serve, and the U.S. fans roared their approval.
Roddick broke Tursunov early in the second set and again to start the third. While he high-fived McEnroe, Tursunov threw up his hands in disgust.
“If there are 12-and-a-half thousand people behind you and you can use them to help you win a tennis match, you would be stupid not to, right?” Roddick said. “Other than cheating, I’ll do anything I can to win.”
Roddick had 25 aces in the match, which lasted 1 hour, 53 minutes. Tursunov had eight aces.
“I wasn’t playing my game,” Tursunov said. “I was playing way too passive. I was playing not to miss.”
The best-of-five final is a culmination of a year’s worth of international competition.
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