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Blake Makes A Racket Over Spirit Of Games

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A Tribune wire report

Published: August 16, 2008

Updated: 08/16/2008 12:19 am

BEIJING - After losing to Chile's Fernando Gonzalez in the Olympic men's tennis singles semifinals Friday, Tampa's James Blake essentially accused Gonzalez of cheating on his way to winning 4-6, 7-5, 11-9.

In the third set with Gonzalez serving, down 9-8, Blake leaped on a short volley on the first point, drilling a shot straight at Gonzalez, who leaned back while the ball flew past him and past the end line.

"Yeah, hit a shot that hit Fernando's racket and then went out," Blake said afterward. "The umpire didn't see it hit his racket."

Blake said he asked the umpire, Carlos Bernardes of Brazil, to use the Hawkeye technology to see if the trajectory of the ball had been altered as it flew past Gonzalez. Bernardes said that it wasn't in the rules.

"Playing in the Olympics in what's supposed to be considered a gentleman's sport, that's a time to call it on yourself," Blake said. "Fernando looked me square in the eye and didn't call it.

"That's disappointing to exit the tournament when you lose the match and also a little faith in a fellow competitor.

"I can be 100 percent sure it hit him. It hit his racket."

The No. 8-seeded Blake remains in the tournament. A first-time Olympian at 28, he'll play Serbia's Novak Djokovic for a bronze today as the last hope for a U.S. medal in men's or women's singles.

Gonzalez, seeded 12th, will play in Sunday's final against Rafael Nadal.

Blake spent almost his entire news conference discussing tennis ethics.

Gonzalez grew irritable when his meeting with the media began to go the same way.

"We'd been on court two hours," he said. "I was tired and I didn't feel anything.

"If I'm 100 percent sure about it, I will give it, but I'm not sure."

Earlier, Gonzalez had hit Blake with a shot, and he said that perhaps Blake was upset about that.

"Maybe he tried to do the same," Gonzalez said. "I just tried to move from the ball."

Blake insisted he tried to get the incident out of his head, but a match that had slowly been tilting toward Gonzalez hurtled to its conclusion. Gonzalez held serve.

Ainslie Pulls Away From Clearwater's Railey

British sailing star Ben Ainslie was assured his fourth Olympic medal Friday when he stretched his overall Finn class lead over Clearwater's Zach Railey going into today's medal race. Even if he were disqualified in the final race, his point total would assure him at least a silver medal.

Ainslie expanded his lead over Olympic first-timer Railey to 12 points heading into the final medal race, which counts double, while Spain's Rafa Trujillo Villar scored his first win of the eight-race series, to secure the last spot among the 10 boats advancing to the medal race.

Railey got his worst finish of the series, with 19th place, which will not count toward his total since sailors are each allowed to drop one result. He said the placing was a tactical decision to improve his chances of winning a medal by increasing his lead on Frenchman Guillaume Florent.

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