Winston-Salem Open Names James Blake to Main Draw

Written by: Staff on 18th August 2011

Winston-Salem Open Names James Blake to Main Draw

Lleyton Hewitt of Australia returns to Robin Soderling of Sweden during their second round match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 23 July 2011. EPA/NEIL MUNNS |

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AUGUST 18, 2011) – James Blake has been added to the roster of next week’s Winston-Salem Open main draw, and Lleyton Hewitt will compete in the tournament as the tournament’s final wildcard.

Blake has long been a favorite of Winston-Salem tennis fans.

The 31-year-old New Yorker has played some of his most-memorable matches here as a member of the U.S. Davis Cup team, going a perfect 6-0 in singles.

He beat Leander Paes and Harsh Mankad in a World Group Qualifier against India in 2001, beat Tommy Robredo and Feliciano Lopez in a quarterfinal win over Spain in 2007, and beat Paul-Henri Mathieu and Richard Gasquet in a quarterfinal win over Spain in 2008. Blake’s victory over Mathieu was perhaps the most exciting match in Winston-Salem Davis Cup history, as he fought off two match points and rallied to win 7-6, 6-7, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.

Blake owns 10 ATP World Tour singles titles, including five in 2006. He won at Washington in 2002, at Stockholm and New Haven in 2005, in Stockholm again, Bangkok, Indianapolis, Las Vegas and Sydney in 2006, and at New Haven again and Sydney again in 2007.

He is also the best-selling author of Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won Back My Life, which detailed his struggles of contracting Scoliosis at age 13, and then contracting Zoster – a condition that affected his hearing and vision and caused temporary paralysis on one side of his face – during his prime in 2004.

Blake is currently ranked No. 84 in the Olympus US Open ATP rankings.

Hewitt, 30, will go down as one of the game’s all-time greats and certainly as one of its greatest counter-punchers.

The Adelaide, Australia native became the youngest player in history to attain World No. 1 ranking in 2001 at age 20, the same year he won six tournaments including the US Open and the Tennis Masters Cup. He won Wimbledon and the Tennis Masters Cup in 2002.

He also won the 2000 US Open doubles title with Max Mirnyi.

All told, Hewitt has won 28 ATP World Tour singles titles, including 15 in a three-year span from 2000-2002. He went into this year having won at least one tournament in each of the past 12 years, which is the longest current active streak on tour.

He has been hobbled with injuries in recent years. Earlier this year he missed three months after undergoing surgery on his left foot. That has dropped his current ranking to No. 165. His best performances this year have been reaching the quarterfinals at San Jose, Memphis and Halle.