Several players brought a little something extra to the Delray Beach Invitational — the flu.
The Delray Beach International boasted its strongest ever lineup when the entries were announced, but by midweek it seemed as though a plague sickness, injuries and upsets had deprived the Delray Beach Invitational of five American draw cards and several other big names.
Despite bad luck wiping out a good portion of the draw, the local interest is such that crowd figures are holding up well. The withdrawal of Andy Roddick, who turned up only to apologize for his inability to play, was the biggest blow, of course. But on Wednesday night James Blake joined an earlier loser, Sam Querrey, amongst those Americans failing to make the third round.
John Isner, who will be on Davis Cup duty for Jim Courier's Davis Cup team in Santiago, Chile next week missed match points while losing 15-13 in the third set tie-breaker to Russia's Teymuraz Gabashvili in the first round and young Ryan Harrison, considered the best of America's young crop, lost 7-5 in the third to Frenchman Florent Serra. Harrison did well to come as close as he did because, like so many others, he was suffering from what has become dubbed "The Memphis Cold".
Roddick was clearly discomforted by congested lungs while beating Milos Raonic in the Memphis final and the Czech Davis Cup player, Radek Stepanek, joined him in withdrawing from this event with the same ailment. In the end four lucky losers got into the draw because of much later withdrawals and one of those, Jan Hajek, threw up on court before retiring against Alejandro Falla.
"Once the bug gets in the locker room it can cause havoc," said Bill Norris, the former ATP trainer who was here looking after senior players competing in the ATP Champions event. "You just have to make sure you don't get too close to anyone!"
Against the odds, qualifier Ryan Sweeting found himself the first American through to the third round after surviving a tough battle with Querrey to win 7-6, 6-4. Querrey insisted that his shoulder had not been too much of a problem although he had been receiving treatment on it in the preceding days. For the 23-year-old Sweeting, who grew up in the Bahamas and now lives in Fort Lauderdale, it provided a much needed breakthrough. He qualified for the Australian Open last month and won a round in the main draw but has struggled since. This win should push him back towards his highest ever ATP ranking of 98.
It won't come any easier for Sweeting, however, as next up he will meet Kei Nishikori, the surprise winner here in 2008. Nishikori, whose highly promising career was blighted by the need for elbow surgery in 2009, beat Blake 6-3, 6-4 under the lights in a repeat of their final three years ago. Nishikori took on board advice from his new part time coach, Brad Gilbert, "and stayed out there." He referred to the need to reduce the number of errors that had tended to creep into his naturally aggressive game and it worked against Blake who blazed away with something resembling his old panache.
"I felt I hit the ball well," said Blake who is on the comeback trail himself after injury. "I was aggressive and went for it but his backhand is so solid."
Blake is now 31 and says he feels it but is determined to give himself the chance to continue his career. "I need to be 100 percent physically to compete with these guys," he said. "You can't do it if you are only 90%. But I'm eager. Tennis is what I love. I don't know if I'll get a wild card into Indian Wells, but I'll get there early and enter the 'qualies' if necessary. I need matches."
Fish moves to quarterfinals
On a blustery but still warm Thursday afternoon, No 2 seed Mardy Fish bolstered the star power of the event by sweeping past the little Brazilian Ricardo Mello 6-2, 6-1 to reach the quarterfinals.
"I played great from start to finish,” said an ebullient Fish afterwards. “Against that sort of player, you need to get up on them early and try and kill them mentally. Make sure they realize it’s going to be a long day if they want to win. I just feel so confident here it probably feels like an away game for my opponents. Many of the people come from clubs around here – I actually get to recognize a few of them!”
Not only did Fish attend Boca High but he is now making his eighth appearance in the Delray International, having won the title in 2009. Surprisingly, Mello is also a past winner (2004) but he was overpowered by the American from the first point and never recovered.
