US Open

I was watching the match between Blake and Haas yesterday. It was an instant classic.

The New York Times put it best-

They tested each other’s will for more than three hours yesterday afternoon at the United States Open, in a match that held more plot twists than a Shakespearean tragedy, but now Tommy Haas and James Blake stood at the net and waited for the instant replay to determine how it would end.

The two men, whose lives have featured far tougher hurdles than that moment, looked at each other in helpless empathy. When the final call ruled Haas’s serve an ace, they could do little but share a warm handshake and endure their opposing emotions. Blake, seeded sixth, absorbed another heartbreaking five-set loss at Arthur Ashe Stadium, in a tournament he considers home. Haas, the 10th seed, reveled in an unlikely triumph.

“Anytime you play such a close match, you’re out there for over three hours, that’s the one thing in tennis, you’re pretty much by yourself afterwards,” Haas said. “When you have to deal with the loss, it’s tough. Obviously for the winner, it’s always such a great feeling.”

Haas’s 4-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-0, 7-6 (4) victory sent him to the quarterfinals, where he will face the man who beat him in that round last year, Nikolay Davydenko of Russia.