DUESSELDORF, Germany -- James Blake and Marty Fish both lost
in singles and the U.S. team dropped its opening match to Chile at
the round-robin World Team Cup on Monday.
Fernando Gonzalez defeated Blake 6-4, 7-5 and Nicolas Massu beat
Fish 6-4, 7-6 (1) in the clay-court event. The top-ranked doubles
team of Bob and Mike Bryan gave the United States its only point
against Chile with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Jorge Aguilar and Julio
Peralta.
The Americans face Argentina on Tuesday. The eight-nation field
is split into two groups, with the winners of each advancing to
Saturday's final. Argentina, Chile, Sweden and the U.S. are in the
Red Group, with Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany and Spain in the
Blue Group.
In Monday's other match, the Czech Republic defeated Spain 2-1.
Blake was up 5-2 in the second set, but Gonzalez won the last
five games -- including the final 11 points -- to close out the
match.
"He played well and I didn't at the end of the set," Blake
said. "I thought I'd played well to get to that point, and then I
just got a little tentative and he took advantage and served
unbelievable at that point."
While he still has at least two more matches here to prepare for
the French Open, Blake said next week's Grand Slam event was not
uppermost on his mind.
"I'd like to get some wins for my team," he said. "It's not
much fun right now when you disappoint your teammates, teammates
that you're such good friends with and have their faith in you. To
lose the way I did is frustrating right now and that's all I'm
thinking about. I'm not too worried about Paris right now."