Hewitt and Blake Get to Do It Again

NEW YORK —  Five minutes and a court separated James Blake and Lleyton Hewitt of Australia, and finally, the inevitable occurred and they were linked in the same sentence at the U.S. Open.

Again.

If it seems they’ve been down this road before, well, they have. Only it was last year. Hewitt beat Blake in a controversial second-round, roller-coaster ride in a packed Louis Armstrong Stadium.

On Thursday, Hewitt was back out there as the defending champion and top-seeded player, defeating qualifier Noam Okun of Israel, 7-6, (7), 6-4, 6-1, fighting off two set points in the opening set.

Blake had a little more trouble on the adjoining Grandstand Court, beating Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, 6-3, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3. He reached the third round five minutes before Hewitt, and they’ll play Saturday.

That there was tennis played at all was stunning. Storms hovered over the New York area all morning and it rained into the afternoon. Play started about five hours late, and officials were able to get through almost all of the scheduled matches. The program was helped along by several one-sided results, among them: No. 6 Andre Agassi defeating wild-card Justin Gimelstob, 6-0, 6-1, 6-1, in 66 minutes and defending champion No. 2 Venus Williams putting away Alicia Molik of Australia, 6-1, 6-2, in 54 minutes.

There were three upsets on the men’s side, at least on paper. Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia defeated No. 4 Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia, 6-3, 6-1, 6-1, Wayne Ferreira of South Africa beat No. 8 Albert Costa of Spain, 1-6, 6-7 (11), 6-4, 7-5, 6-4, and Jan-Michael Gambill beat No. 9 Carlos Moya of Spain, 6-3, 6-3, 6-1.

The upsets did not garner the interest that accompanied the upcoming Blake-Hewitt match. Almost simultaneously, Hewitt and Blake were interviewed afterward by TV reporters about last year’s racially-tinged episode in their match.

Hewitt had complained about an African-American line judge and used the word “similarities.” He later said he was not referring to Blake and the line judge, only the calls by the judge, and Blake, whose father is African-American, gave him the benefit of the doubt.

“I did what I was taught to do, to give people the benefit of the doubt,” Blake said in the USA Network interview. “I don’t have any hard feelings toward him.”

Blake later said the air was cleared long ago. He was asked if he was bothered by people knowing him for the one match. Additionally, Blake cramped and threw up on the court, eventually losing in five sets to Hewitt.

“I’m happy casual tennis fans know who I am,” said Blake, smiling. “That’s one thing I never expected to happen. I wish they had seen that and known the fact I played really great tennis in that match, that we really did have a battle out there. If that’s all they know me for, that’s unfortunate. It’s a little more motivation for me to win some more matches, so I can talk about it.

“Lleyton, I don’t think he talks about it as much as I do. People keep talking about him winning.”

Said Hewitt: “James and I are fine about it. We spoke straight after the situation. That was pretty much the end of it.”

Lately, Hewitt has spent more time sparring with the ATP because of a $103,000 fine imposed for failing to do a pre-match interview with ESPN earlier this month. His Indianapolis law firm issued another statement on Thursday, taking issue with statements made by ATP chief executive officer Mark Miles.

Miles’ leadership has come under scrutiny. And it is notable he has not met with the world’s No. 1 player, even before the Open.

“He had plenty of opportunities at different times to talk to me,” Hewitt said. “Nothing really happened.”

Hewitt’s agent, Tom Ross, said he spoke with Miles on the phone in the days before the issue exploded in Cincinnati. “I felt it was more likely than not, he would intervene,” Ross said. “Did I think he was going to solve the problem? Absolutely yes.”

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A seemingly routine question caught Jennifer Capriati, 26, without an answer. Capriati, surprisingly, had this to say when she was asked in her post-match interview about Title IX: “I have no idea what Title IX is, sorry.”