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Blake Revels In Davis Cup Win, Takes Final Match

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By ANNE M. PETERSON, The Associated Press

Published: December 3, 2007

PORTLAND, Ore. - Tampa's James Blake smiled his way through an ultimately meaningless match Sunday, still reveling in the United States' victory over Russia in the Davis Cup final.

"It's starting to sink in," Blake said. "We did it."

Blake defeated Dmitry Tursunov 1-6, 6-3, 7-5, and the U.S. beat Russia 4-1 to win the Davis Cup title.
Igor Andreev gave the Russians their only win in the final by defeating Bob Bryan 6-3, 7-6 (4) earlier in the day, after United States already had clinched the title for the first time in 12 years.

Bryan and his brother, Mike, defeated the Russian duo of Andreev and Nikolay Davydenko 7-6 (4), 6-4, 6-2 on Saturday to give the Americans an insurmountable 3-0 advantage.

At a ceremony following the final two matches, captain Patrick McEnroe was brimming with pride.

"It's pretty emotional. I think it's finally setting in that these guys did it," McEnroe said. "We won the Cup."

Blake called it one of the greatest moments of his career.

The first match on the hard court at Memorial Coliseum was supposed to be between sixth-ranked Andy Roddick and Mikail Youzhny, but the captains for Russia and the United States each made substitutions.

Andreev claimed the first set, and then the crowd tried to spur Bryan with chants of "Go Bob Go!" At one point he got frustrated and dropped his spinning racket to the court, but he saved serve on a pivotal game that went to deuce four times, evening the second set at 3-3.

The second set would go to a tiebreaker, which Andreev won with a forehand that sailed past Bryan at the net.

"Of course, we didn't want to lose 5-love, but today I couldn't take this much too serious ... At least we showed we could fight and maybe make up a little for the score," Andreev said.

Each player had seven aces in the 1 hour, 22 minute match.

Bryan said such meaningless matches are "probably the worst thing in sports."

"Imagine Jordan winning an NBA title and having to play a pickup game against the guys he just beat," Bryan said.

Tursunov easily won the first set against 13th-ranked Blake, but the American, playing loose and often smiling, won the second.

Blake broke Tursunov to go up 6-5 in the final set, then held serve to complete the 1 hour, 40 minute match. Tursunov finished with seven double-faults.

The once-dominant United States had not won the Davis Cup since 1995, the longest span without an American victory. Pete Sampras last led the team to victory over Russia on clay in Moscow.

The victory gave the United States its 32nd title in the international competition, dating to 1900.

On Friday, Roddick defeated Tursunov 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 in the opening match and Blake outlasted Youzhny 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (3), 7-6 (3).

No. 34 Tursunov was the lowest-ranked member of the Russian team, following fourth-ranked Davydenko, No. 19 Youzhny and No. 33 Andreev.

Davydenko came into the Davis Cup final under investigation for unusual betting patterns on a match he played in August.

Sunday's reverse singles were shortened to best-of-three sets because the U.S. had already clinched the title.

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