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Fresh perspective But the 25-year-old American looks at life and tennis differently these days. Last year, Blake broke his neck and suffered a case of shingles. His father, who inspired him to play tennis, died of cancer. Once ranked No. 22, Blake dropped so low in the rankings he was forced to start from the bottom and prove himself again. It's enough to put an early exit from the French Open in perspective. "I'm proud I earned my way in and got a first-round win," Blake said. On Thursday, Blake cramped up in the final three sets and lost to fellow qualifier and 2003 French junior champion Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland, 6-7 (9), 5-7, 6-1, 6-3, 6-4. After the match, there was no moping over having blown a two-set lead. The Harvard-educated Blake, instead, spoke about feeling thankful. He was proud of coming off a 14-match winning streak that included the qualifying matches for Roland Garros. "How many guys that have been in the position I'm in would still be able to do it as well?" said Blake, reflecting over his very difficult 2004. It started in May of last year in Rome, when he was running for a drop shot, slipped on muddy clay, hit his head on a net post and broke a vertebrae in his neck. Blake initially feared the injury could paralyze him. As it was, it sidelined him for two months, most of which he spent at his parents' Connecticut home while his father was dying of stomach cancer. "In some ways it was a blessing in disguise for him, because he could be with his dad in the last months of his life," said Patrick McEnroe, Blake's Davis Cup captain when he played on the U.S. team from 2001-03. Blake's father passed away last July, the same month the tennis player was diagnosed with shingles, a virus similar to a serious case of chicken pox. He played only two matches the rest of the year. As Andre Agassi once did after a serious injury, Blake chose to work his way back through the Challenger circuit. "I didn't want to go in there acting like I belong on the Tour level, or anything," he said. "I wanted to earn it again. I wanted to see, 'OK, can I beat these guys again? Can I do this?"' Now, he wants to reclaim his spot on the U.S. Davis Cup team. "I don't want Patrick to pick me on sentimental reasons, because I had a tough year. I want to earn it," Blake said. McEnroe told The Associated Press that Blake's prospects for playing Davis Cup were good, especially because the surface is expected to be clay in Belgium. "He's playing better than everybody else on clay right now," McEnroe said. One thing Blake takes away from his short Roland Garros run, he said, is the conviction that he can play well on clay -- a surface that has foiled many top American players. "I'm feeling a lot more comfortable here," he said. "It's just a matter of making sure my body holds up. I mean, this is my 15th match in a row. So 15 matches in three weeks on two continents, going from indoors to outdoors to here ... it's a lot to do. That could have played into the fact that my legs were gone. "But no complaints. I wish I could have the luxury of complaining after 14 wins all the time," he said. And, he's not running low on tennis rackets. "Thanks to my new calm, all the rackets in my bag are still intact," he said, joking. Something he will happily leave behind, Blake added, is his baseball cap -- a good-luck charm that lost its power with the end of the streak. "Now I finally get to throw out that disgusting hat that I've been wearing for 15 straight matches," he said. "I'm pretty happy about that." Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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