CH Dallas QF: Blake def. Russell 6-7(2) 7-6(6) 6-3 (Saved 2 MP)
Epic fail of the highest order. In the first two sets Russell was simply too good for Blake, who still has the same power in his groundstrokes, but makes ten times the amount of UE as in his peak days.
Russell almost managed to bottle the first set, when he missed two SP's at *5-4 and gifted Blake a SP at *5-6 when he missed two easy forehands, but dominated again in the tie-break and the beginning of the second set. The first tense moment in the second set arrived at 3-3, when he gifted Blake two BP's by double faulting twice in a row, which tells it all, Russell's only enemy today was himself. Blake managed to save a MP at 3-5* with an amazing cross court backhand, which led him to break Russell twice in a row with strong tennis and serve for the set at *6-5, but he didn't make it. In the tie-break Blake led *5-1, lost five points in a row and Russell screwed his second MP up by throwing in a way too passive first serve and missing a forehand after that. Third set was one way traffic with Blake repeating his play from the second half of the second set.
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David Ferrer - Jerzy Janowicz
Dustin Brown - Fabio Fognini - Gaël Monfils - Ernests Gulbis - Alexandr Dolgopolov
Gilles Simon - Tommy Haas - Pablo Cuevas - Radek Stepanek - Igor Sijsling - Paolo Lorenzi - Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo
17 > 17
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CH Dallas QF: Blake def. Russell 6-7(2) 7-6(6) 6-3 (Saved 2 MP)
