Blake Overcomes Gulbis, Faces Isner Next

© Brandon Feusner/Atlanta Tennis ChampionshipsJames Blake won his first tour-level match since April in Houston.

American James Blake overcame Ernests Gulbis on Monday night at the Atlanta Tennis Championships, defeating the Latvian 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-2 to set up a second-round meeting with third-seeded countryman John Isner.

Former World No. 4 Blake launched his comeback as Gulbis served for the match at 5-4 in the second set. He was ahead a break 3-2 in the third set when the match was momentarily suspended due to rain. When the pair stepped back on court, he secured another service break, and successfully faced down four break points in the final game to clinch the victory.

It marked Blake’s first tour-level match win since April in Houston, and extended Gulbis’s losing streak to five straight matches dating back to May. The 31-year-old Blake, who dropped outside of the Top 100 last season after being sidelined by injury, recently won the ATP Challenger title in Winnetka.

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Eighth seed Somdev Devvarman earned a hard-fought win over American Ryan Sweeting on Monday, prevailing 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 after two hours and 23 minutes. Devvarman, ranked two places behind World No. 66 Sweeting in the South African Airways 2011 ATP Rankings, won exactly four more points than his opponent during the first-round match.

Devvarman performed well on hard courts earlier this season, reaching his second ATP World Tour final in Johannesburg (l. to Anderson) and the fourth round at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells (l. to Nadal).

Devvarman next faces Japan’s Tatsuma Ito, who defeated German Michael Berrer 7-6(6), 6-4 to earn his first win in ATP World Tour main draw action. The 106th-ranked Ito has enjoyed success on the ATP Challenger circuit this season, reaching two hard-court finals.

In an all-American first-round match, 33-year-old Michael Russell dismissed 21-year-old wild card Donald Young 6-0, 6-3 in one hour and 13 minutes. Russell advanced to the quarter-finals last year at this ATP World Tour 250 hard-court tournament before falling to eventual runner-up John Isner.

Also on Day 1, Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller closed out a 6-3, 7-6(6) win over seventh-seeded American Alex Bogomolov Jr.