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| January 14, 2007 | Sunday | Zilhaj 23, 1427 |
Blake overwhelms Moya to win Sydney title
SYDNEY, Jan 13: James Blake joined Pete Sampras and Lleyton Hewitt as back-to-back Open era winners of the Sydney International with a thrilling three-set win over Carlos Moya in the final here on Saturday.
The American world No.4 was on top early but the 44th-ranked Spaniard roared back from 0-4 down in the second set to level. Blake then rallied to claim a 6-3, 5-7, 6-1 win in just over two hours.
It was Blake's ninth ATP Tour title and he joined Sampras and Hewitt as the only players to have won back-to-back titles in the third oldest tournament in world tennis, going back to 1885.
Hewitt claimed two doubles here in 2000-01 and 2004-05 and Sampras in 1993-94.
It was Blake's sixth win in nine encounters with Moya and the pair will be at it again in the opening round of the Australian Open on Tuesday.
The 27-year-old Blake has yet to get past the fourth round in five Australian Opens, but he improved his ranking 20 places last year. He won five titles last season.
Blake, who got a walkover into the final after Austrian Jurgen Melzer was struck down with a stomach virus on Friday, broke Moya's serve three times in dominating the first half of the match.
Blake broke Moya's serve in the fourth game when Moya netted a forehand and had set point in the eighth game, before clinching the set on his serve in the ninth game.
He took the momentum into the second set, reeling off successive service breaks to race to a 4-0 lead, before Moya produced his best tennis of the match to win seven of the next eight games.
Moya earned sustained crowd applause for his part in a sensational rally when he retrieved three wide balls from either side of the court and got to break point only for Blake to hold to 5-3 after five deuces.
The veteran Spaniard, urged on by the crowd to take it into a third set, held serve to 5-4 to force Blake to serve it out for the match.
Moya broke back a second time to level at 5-5 after three break points. He hit the front for the first time in the set and then broke the American's serve again to take the final into a third set.
Blake regrouped and broke Moya three times in the final set to see off the Spaniard's whole-hearted challenge.
Moya, a semi-finalist in Chennai last week, was playing in his third Sydney final over 10 years -- he lost to Tim Henman in 1997 and Hewitt in 2004 -- and has yet to win a title in Australia.
Results
Men’s (Singles final)
James Blake (United States) bt Carlos Moya (Spain) 6-3, 5-7, 6-1.
(Doubles final)
Paul Hanley (Australia) and Kevin Ullyett (Zimbabwe) bt Mark Knowles, (Bahamas) and Daniel Nestor (Canada), 6-4, 6-7 (3), 10-6 (match tiebreaker).–Agencies
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