The German, though, had won both previous head-to-head meetings with Blake.

“For him, it doesn’t really matter if he plays on hard court or if he plays on clay or on grass. He plays his game. He goes for the shots,” Schuettler said. “If he hits the shot and he hits it well, (and) he feels comfortable with the balls on the court, then he’s dangerous everywhere.”

Still, clay tends to slow serves and groundstrokes and make for longer points, often rewarding patience while punishing aggressiveness. It also requires plenty of good footwork. Because people in the United States tend to grow up practicing and playing on speedier hard courts, they often find it difficult to be successful on clay, which is more commonly found in Europe and South America.

No one from the United States won the men’s singles championship in Paris between Tony Trabert’s title in 1955 and Michael Chang’s in 1989.

Blake used to find himself attempting to dramatically alter his approach on clay. Not anymore.

“I tried to be a ’clay courter,’ and I’m not. I’m not a natural mover, playing defensively on the stuff, looping balls back, standing 8 feet behind the baseline to return serves and just pushing it in. That’s not my game. I’m not good at it,” he said.

“I can’t try to be that person, that type of player. I’m going to lose to guys who are much more skilled at that. So I need to play my game and adjust a little bit, be a little bit more patient, learn to play defense a little bit better, maybe work in the drop shot a little bit more, but not completely changing my game.”

There are still moments when Blake clearly is not nearly as comfortable as he is on hard courts. After sailing one forehand long on a bit of an awkward lunge in the second set against Schuettler, Blake scolded himself: “Don’t slide into that! Just get over there!”

After building a 5-1 lead in the third set, Blake began to bungle things, losing five consecutive games. He twice was broken while serving for the match, but did eventually pull it out in the tiebreaker, getting to match point by ending a 16-stroke exchange with a runaround forehand winner just inside the line.

“Maybe this will help my confidence even more to know that no matter what happens I can deal with ups and downs in matches,” Blake said. “There was quite a few of ups until that point, and then there’s one little valley. I dealt with it, so I’m happy about that.”

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