Blake Can't Get a Break

Once again, James Blake is on the sidelines. Like Icarus, each time this gentleman of the courts flies a little too close to the sun, part of his apparatus comes undone and he tumbles back to earth. In this case, even as his marginally readable biography, Breaking Back, shows surprisingly solid results at the sales counter, Blake's hardcourt season fell into the shadows yesterday when he had to withdraw from the Rogers cup, citing abdominal problems. The Racqonteur hopes his tummy feels better before New Haven so that Blake can put on a show for his hometown crowd.

Tati's Travails

Poor little Tatiana Golovin. She just can't seem to get a break. Or maybe it's that she gets a break too often. When she isn't stirring things up with her cropped tops and red hot pants, she's crumbling onto the court in pain induced by one injury or another. It always seems like she's on the verge of a legitimate watershed moment when her body gives out. Remember when she was on her way to beating Maria Sharapova in the semis at Key Biscayne? The whole crowd was behind her, then she flies out wide to retrieve one of Masha's booming shots, gruesomely rolling her ankle in the process. Yesterday was the same story at the Carson tournament, as Tati succumbed to Tamarine Tanasugarn, the Thai Energizer bunny, with a bum hamstring. Bummer!