Blake bumped by good friend Fish

One month from now in Beverly Hills, James Blake will put on a tux and take his place as a groomsman at the wedding of one of his best friends. That friend happened to be across the net from him Saturday night at Arthur Ashe Stadium, where the emotional-conflict meter was beyond all measure and Blake took a spanking that was not made any more pleasant because of the person who administered it.

For Mardy Fish, who will soon wed Stacey Gardner, former lawyer and current star of the TV show "Deal Or No Deal," the upshot wasn't just a rousing 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (4) triumph, but his first trip to the Open's round of 16 in his nine visits.

For the ninth-seeded Blake, the local kid and perennial crowd favorite, it marks his earliest Flushing Meadows exit in five years, and the conclusion of a most dispiriting tournament.

Fish, 26, was ranked as high as No. 17 four years ago, and is a big hitter and huge server whose weapons never quite nudged him into the game's elite. He knocked off a guy named Federer earlier this year, so it's not as if he hasn't played with the best, although the 35th-ranked Fish never looked better than he did against Blake Saturday night, smacking 55 winners and 16 aces, and dictating play throughout.

"Tonight was tough," said Fish, who had never played a night match at Ashe before Saturday night. "I never want to see James lose. It feels like he has 20,000 friends (here) screaming right in my ear."

The only thing Fish didn't do, alas, was much celebrating, not after he smoked a superb backhand volley winner to take the second set. Not after he went up a break in the fifth game of the third, drilling a crackling forehand winner and following it with a lob winner on break point.

Out of respect to his friend and regular hitting partner in Tampa, Fish was emotionally contained throughout, even as he was performing brilliantly on the nation's biggest tennis stage. "I'm not there to rub anything in," he said.

Blake, for his part, seemed strangely detached for much of the match, and for someone who likes to strike quick and hard, oddly uncommitted in his approach. Blake had all of three winners in the second set, while Fish was piling up 21 - a lackluster effort that Blake attributed neither to the friendship involved, nor to a hangover from Beijing, where Blake beat Roger Federer before suffering a colossal disappointment when he failed to convert three match points and lost in the semifinals to Fernando Gonzalez.

"It wasn't Beijing," Blake said. "It was Mardy playing some of his best tennis."

Blake played his best tennis deep in the third, even as his customary J-Block cheering section was getting warned by the chair for being overly exuberant. He played with his greatest self-conviction in the 10th game, Fish serving for the match. Fish double-faulted twice and Blake played splendidly in Game 11 to go up 6-5.

"I got a little tight out there, to be honest," Fish said.

In the ensuing breaker, though, Fish rallied from a 2-4 deficit to win the final five points of the match, as Blake missed three successive backhands, and soon an Open that did not go smoothly from the outset was over. In Blake's opening round, he had an unexpectedly grueling five-set test from 19-year-old fellow American Donald Young. In the second round, he split sets with Steve Darcis of Belgium, before Darcis had to retire with lower back pain.

While his friend readies for a round-of-16 match against angular Frenchman Gael Monfils - the No. 32 seed who schooled No.7 David Nalbandian at Louis Armstrong Stadium, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2, earlier yesterday - Blake was still experiencing the numbing aftershocks, shaken by his effort in a place where he usually shines.

"It's a tough feeling out there when you are the favorite, and you're not playing your best tennis, and can't summon your best tennis," Blake said.