Blake, Nalbandian Prove Formidable In First Round

© Getty ImagesDavid Nalbandian is playing in just the second tournament of his comeback.

American James Blake is accustomed to playing on Stadium Court at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, but found himself in a somewhat unfamiliar situation Friday – contesting a first-round match at the BNP Paribas Open for the first time since his well-documented comeback season five years ago.

Blake entered this year’s ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament ranked outside the Top 50 – preventing him from receiving the customary first-round bye reserved for the top 32 seeds – but still proved dangerous, taking a mere 55 minutes to defeat Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver 6-3, 6-2.

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“I feel like I've been playing pretty well,” said Blake. “I felt comfortable out there today. For me to take time away from him like I do when I'm playing well, it was a good sign. You keep getting better. I know my ranking’s dropped, but I'm not that worried about it.”

The former World No. 4, who had come up against Andy Roddick and Marcos Baghdatis in the first round of ATP World Tour events earlier this season, acknowledged however that his lower ranking led to trickier draws.

“Definitely leaves a little more up to chance, but I've been there before,” he said. “When I was young and coming up I had to go through it. You have to beat some of the top guys to start gaining that respect when you're young.

“Now I've got to do it again to show that I hopefully still belong up there.  To prove I belong in the talks for winning titles and for being seeded and all that kind of stuff, I have to improve myself because there's no one else to blame.”

Blake, a finalist in 2006 at the BNP Paribas Open, will next face 12th-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer, who enters with a seven-match winning streak and has reached the final in his past two tournament appearances.

“I know on any given day and in any tournament if I'm not seeded and if I'm ranked real low, I'm assuming a lot of the higher seeds aren't really thrilled to be playing me early on in a tournament because I feel like I do still have the ability to compete with the top guys,” said Blake.

Another player looking to regain Top 10 status, former World No. 3 David Nalbandian, also posted a win in his first-round match as he defeated Austrian qualifier Stefan Koubek 6-2, 7-6(2) in one hour and 14 minutes.

Nalbandian, who had made just one ATP World Tour main draw appearance since undergoing hip surgery last May, proved the unlikely hero for Argentina last week in the Davis Cup first round, stepping in for his injured countrymen at the last minute and winning the decisive fifth rubber against Sweden’s Andreas Vinciguerra.

The 28 year old came up on the losing end of a memorable fourth-round match last year in the desert, where he held five match points against eventual champion Rafael Nadal in the second set. The Argentine has reached the fourth round or better the past five years in Indian Wells, highlighted by a quarter-final showing in 2008 (l. to Fish).

Also Friday, German Simon Greul prevented 12th-seeded Frenchman Gael Monfils from meeting countryman Richard Gasquet in the second round after edging the latter 7-6(6), 7-6(7). Meanwhile, Chinese Taipei’s Yen-Hsun Lu cruised past Spaniard Oscar Hernandez 6-1, 6-2 to earn a second-round encounter with top American Andy Roddick.