Blake falls to Nadal again

Spaniard repeats Indian Wells quarterfinal win in Miami

FROM THE SONY ERICSSON OPEN IN MIAMI – Heading into the spring tournaments of Indian Wells and Miami, Rafael Nadal had never beaten James Blake in any of their three career meetings. In two weeks time, the Spaniard has narrowed the gap in their head-to-head to 2-3, after beating Blake in back-to-back, three-set Masters Series quarterfinals. Nadal rallied from a set down to an eventual comfortable 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 win.

“I think I play better this two times than the last times against him,” Nadal said. “I change a little bit tactically. I play more aggressive than before. I can lose, but I think it’s the only way for try to win.”

With more aggressive tennis, Nadal means playing closer to the baseline than he did in the past and not hitting as many short balls as he usually tends to do. He’s not playing as dominant as when he won in Indian Wells last year, but Rafa is performing well on hard courts again these past couple of weeks, after a disappointing start to the season so far.

Nadal was serving well in the first set and he held three break points in Blake’s opening service game, but failed to convert any. Blake needed just one opportunity to secure the set. With Rafa serving at 3-4, 30-love, Blake blasted a couple of excellent returns, to win four straight points and claim the break.

“The first set, I don’t know, but I was playing well, winning my serves easy,” Nadal said. “So later in the 4-3, 30-love, you play against James and he has three winners, returns, something like this. So you don’t know why, but you are 6-3 down.”

Nadal was right in pointing out the break came pretty much out of the blue, as he only lost a combined two points in his other service games that set.

Blake held the momentum in the beginning of the second set - though it didn’t lead to any break points - but he started playing more conservatively as the match went on, not moving around his backhand enough and playing with less pace, giving Nadal the chance to get into his comfort zone. Midway through the set, Nadal created a handful of break points and eventually took the advantage on his seventh break opportunity of the match, with a powerful, pin-point backhand passing shot down the line. This gave the Spaniard a 5-3 lead, and after coming back from 0-30 in the next game, he held for 6-3.

After wasting five break points in the third game of the final set, Nadal clinched his sixth opportunity after countering an overhead and seeing Blake miss the resulting volley. Blake would not win another game, as he lost his spirits near the end of the match.

“This one was much more disappointing [than the loss in Indian Wells],” he said. “Last week I felt like I played my game. Just didn’t play it well enough last week. This week I felt like I played my game for a while and then I got a little indecisive. I didn’t know how much to go for, when to go for it, and I got a little too passive and let him dictate play. But I don’t feel like it’s that embarrassing to go out and lose twice in a row to Rafael Nadal.”

BLAKE SAYS BODY LANGUAGE STAYED STRONG

Blake doesn’t agree with the fact that his body language was too negative near the end of the match and he wasn’t into it as much anymore.

“In my head I’m fighting till the end, and whether or not it looks like it or not, that was always the plan. I always feel like I can win. Rafa’s desire and his will to win and everything he does, every single person out here has that. They just don’t express it the same way. If I were to go out there and show that much emotion it would be detrimental to me. It does irk me a little bit when it’s something that people feel like they see, and when they see that they think they know me.”

Now that Nadal has shown he’s able to beat Blake on hard courts, it’s time for the Spaniard to face another one of his nemesis on a fast surface in the semis: Tomas Berdych. The big-serving, hard-hitting Czech is in outstanding form this week, having lost a mere four games against both Juan Carlos Ferrero and Dmitry Tursunov in his previous matches. In the second round, Berdych overpowered Sam Querrey 6-1, 6-2. In the night session on Wednesday, he bested Igor Andreev 6-4, 6-4 to set up his seventh career meeting with Nadal. Their series is tied at 3-3, but Berdych has won all three encounters on hard courts.