Blake Retires; Nishikori and Gulbis fall; US Open Day 1 Recap

14 years after turning professional, former number four in the world James Blake announced his retirement. He will retire after playing this years US Open. A big face in American tennis, this is exactly a year after another big American face in Andy Roddick retired. Blake will play Croatian Ivo Karlovic in the first round of the singles. Blake is also playing in the Men's Doubles, teaming with rising American star Jack Sock. However, they drew the short stick and will be playing the number 2 seeded team of Austrian Alexander Peya and Brazilian Bruno Soares.

To the action, 11 seeded Kei Nishikori (Japan) lost to qualifier Daniel Evans (Great Britain) 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. Watching the match, Nishikori seemed kind of dreary out their and waiting for Evans to lose versus going after it and being aggressive. Evans will play Bernard Tomic in the second round.

Former NCAA Champion Bradley Klahn came ready to play after receiving his wildcard into the main draw. Klahn was paired up with Kenny de Schepper (France), who reached the fourth round of Wimbledon this year. However, de Schepper had not one a match since then (losing 4 straight first round matches). In the 3rd Set tiebreaker, Klahn was in the drivers seat on almost every point. With de Schepper on defense, there was really no chance for him. With a game like de Scheppers, I was very surprised to see him only come in the net once in that tiebreak. Klahn won that tiebreak 7-0, en route to winning the match 6-7, 6-2, 7-6, 7-6. Klahn will play Spaniard Feliciano Lopez (23rd Seed) in the second round.

Another match I covered yesterday briefly was that between Spaniard Albert Ramos and Aussie Bernard Tomic. Both of these players are hit or miss at grand slams so this sparked my interest. In the 4th set tiebreak, with Ramos up 2 sets to 1, it was amazing how tight Ramos got. Ramos even threw in a foot fault on a second serve. Bernard Tomic jumped all over his opponent at that point, swinging the momentum entirely to his favor en route to winning the match 6-3, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6, 6-3.

My last match of the day featured the Australian Open Junior Champion Nick Krygios (Australia) again number 4 seed David Ferrer of Spain. I watched this match in the interest of seeing how Krygios could adjust playing at this level versus the junior level. Krygios played some excellent tennis but at the end of the day Ferrer over powered him and played more consistent (not needing to go for huge shots).

Lastly, Marinko Matosevic was a big disappointment yesterday. After a good summer, Matosevic just looked weary and uninterested losing in 4 sets to Tommy Rebredo 6-3, 6-7, 6-3, 6-2. Former University of Tennessee star Rhyne Williams lost in 5 sets
to Russian Nikolay Davydenko after being up 2 sets to 1, and 4-1 in the fourth set. That's a tough one.

Number 30 seed Ernests Gulbis also bowed out, losing Austrian Andreas Haider-Mauer in 5 sets.

I was 13-6 with my picks from Monday. Here are my picks for Tuesday:
Federer vs. Zelmja
Djokavic vs. Berankis
Raonic vs. Fabbiano
Pella vs. Querrey
Isner vs. Volandri
Lorenzi vs. Berdych
Monfils vs. Unger
Haas vs. Mathieu
Janowicz vs. Gonzalez
Sock vs. Petznschner
Kamke vs. Johnson
Altamirano vs. Kohlschreiber
Giraldo vs. Berlocq (Previously Picked)
Young vs. Klizan
Benneteau vs. Przysiezny
Istomin vs. Almagro (This should've been on a TV Court)
Sousa vs. Dimitrov
Mayer vs. Monaco
Andujar vs. de Bakker
Lu vs. Gimeno-Traver
Montanes vs Roger-Vasselin
Kubot vs. Nieminen
Pospisil vs. Dutra Silva (Previously Picked)
Chardy vs. Stakhovsky
Becker vs. Rosol

Have a good day,
Fry That Chicken