Blake: made to work hard
Top seed James Blake began his Stockholm Open title defence with a 6-7 7-5 6-3 victory against Jonas Bjorkman.
World number seven Blake laboured for two-and-a-half hours to quell the challenge of his veteran Swedish opponent and maintain his unbeaten record in a tournament he has won in each of the last two years.
Bjorkman produced glimpses of the tennis that took him to fourth in the world rankings back in 1997 while taking the first set 7-3 in a tie-break.
And the 35-year-old came within two points of victory at 5-4 ahead in the second set, but from 30-30 Blake battled to hold his serve with some fine baseline play.
The American then broke in the next game for a 6-5 lead, and levelled the match at one set apiece by holding serve in the 12th game.
Blake claimed another break to go 4-3 ahead in th decider, held his serve, and then broke again to close out the match 6-3.
Elsewhere, fourth seed Tommy Haas was a comprehensive 6-4 6-1 victor against Olivier Rochus, while seventh seed Ivo Karlovic required three sets to overcome Nicolas Massu.
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Source: www.skysports.com
