Roddick Seizes Legg Mason Title

Top Seed Overcomes Aggressive Play By Fan Favorite Blake

Andy Roddick walked away with the title, but James Blake won the honors for post-match remarks yesterday before a capacity crowd of 7,588 at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic.

Roddick uncorked 18 aces in his 7-5, 6-3 victory over Blake, his good friend and frequent hitting partner, to pick up his second Legg Mason championship and his fourth title this year. With the victory, Roddick takes over the lead in the U.S. Open Series standings, which puts him on track for a $2.2 million payday in New York next month if he finishes the hard-court circuit in first place and wins what would be his second U.S. Open.

Roddick concluded his on-court acceptance speech by paying tribute to Blake, 25, who became the first player to break Roddick's whopping serve this week and forced the top seed into uncharacteristic errors with his aggressive play.

"As good of a player as you saw here," Roddick told the crowd, "he's an even better person."

A Washington fan favorite since he won the Legg Mason in 2002, Blake thanked everyone from the tournament's ballkids to its massage therapists; his girlfriend for making him happy and fulfilled; and his friends who drove from Connecticut to cheer him on. Finally, he thanked his mother, who was watching from the stands.

"She means the world to me," he explained. Then he asked fans to join him in singing "Happy Birthday" on the eve of her 70th birthday. "Her name is Betty," Blake added. "I'll start."

And fans erupted in song, paying tribute to someone they had never met.

Despite his loss in yesterday's final, Blake accomplished an enormous amount at this year's Legg Mason. He opened play as the world's 101st-ranked player, deemed unworthy of a seed. He leaves having knocked off three seeds, advanced to his first ATP final in two years and acquitted himself against Roddick as well as any opponent.

"It hurts to lose right now," said Blake, who has worked his way back to form after illness and injury in 2004 sent his ranking plunging. "But I'll be satisfied. I played some good tennis and made some very good players look less than good."

Roddick, who also won the tournament in 2001, opened the match in signature style, cranking an ace clocked at 139 mph. He held serve and immediately broke serve, pouncing on Blake's slow and shaky start. In no time Roddick's lead was 4-1, and the rout, it seemed, was on.

But Blake broke back -- a stunning achievement in itself, given that Roddick had won all 56 of his service games this week. He reeled off three consecutive games to draw even at 4-4 only to falter at the worst possible time.

Serving to force a tiebreaker at 5-6, Blake hit a wild forehand and sprayed an out-of-control backhand, howling in anguish at the blunder. Then he badly overplayed an overhead to hand Roddick the set, 7-5.