Honored Blake prefers to look ahead

By including James Blake in Monday's opening night ceremonies, billed as "celebrating those who dream," U.S. Open officials were not hinting, "Hit the Road, Jack."

At least Blake hoped not. "A couple of people mentioned something like that to me," he said, "that they're trying to get rid of me, already. I hope that's not the case."

The festivities cited Blake's triumph over scoliosis, wearing a back brace for 18 hours a day when he was 13, and his eventual rise to No. 4 in the world, being a member of the 2007 U.S. Davis Cup championship team and a perennial fan favorite at the Open.

There was no mention of the fact that Blake, at 30, has plummeted to 108 in the world rankings and found his way into this year's Open field only because he was granted a wild card. Blake yesterday made it through his first-round match against Belgian journeyman Kristof Vliegen, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4, with no trouble and decided the ceremonies were "something to look back on when I'm done playing.

"I guess it's OK to look back while I'm still playing. But I don't want to put it in perspective quite yet, because I think I've got more career left in me, more good tennis."

Next up for him is Canadian Peter Polansky, a qualifier who upset No. 30 seed Juan Monaco of Argentina in straight sets. A bigger surprise was France's 32-year-old Arnaud Clement, ranked 68th and struggling all summer, eliminating No. 16 seed Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in five sets.

Baghdatis had played so well in Open tuneups that he was on the lips of several tennis experts as a threat to push deep into the tournament. "What can I say?" Baghdatis said. "Maybe a bit tired. It's been a month and three weeks I'm out here, and it's a lot of time."

No. 3 seed Novak Djokovic avoided a similar early exit by taking the last two sets to win in five against fellow Serb Viktor Troicki, a Djokovic teammate on their national Davis Cup team and a friend since Djokovic was 9 years old.

"My first tournament in my life, I won my first round and then played [Troicki] second round," Djokovic said. "He destroyed me. We keep on talking about that. Just bad luck for him today, because he was the better player for a while."