Two months after hitting a net post at the Italian Open, James Blake returns to action at the Newport Casino.

01:00 AM EDT on Monday, July 5, 2004

BY MIKE SZOSTAK
Journal Sports Writer

NEWPORT -- If there is a sentimental favorite in the Campbell's Hall of Fame Tennis Championships starting today, it has to be James Blake.

New York-born, Connecticut-raised and Harvard-educated for two years, Blake will be making his sixth appearance on the Newport Casino grass. He has never won the tournament.

But that's not why many fans will be pulling for him. Two months ago, Blake, 24, tripped and plunged head first into the net post at the Italian Open in Rome.

"I was very, very scared. The way I hit that pole, the first thing my coach [Brian Barker] said, he was thinking I'd be in a wheelchair the rest of my life and was just hoping I was going to be able to walk someday," Blake said last week in a teleconference from Tampa, where he was training for his return to Newport and the ATP Tour.

Blake was running for a drop shot when his foot caught in the clay as he was attempting to slide. His momentum carried him forward at full speed "and my neck and head went right into the net post, a net post made of metal."

Blake couldn't move. Medical personnel put a brace on his neck, got him on a stretcher and rushed him to a local hospital.

"There was one guy speaking English and helping me out," he said, "but most of the people didn't speak English. I really didn't know what they were saying or what was going on . . . and every thought was going through my mind."

Eventually, Blake was able to move his fingers and toes, allaying his fear of paralysis. Still, while hoping that he had suffered a bone bruise and would recover in time to play the French Open, he worried that he had broken his neck and would not be able to play tennis again.

"Every thought was going through my mind, from hopeful to very, very panicked. And [being] in that hospital for four hours without getting a definitive answer was pretty scary. And the first time they did try to move me, to get me to sit up, and I couldn't do it because there was way too much pain, I was even more scared," he said.

Blake was so incapacitated that he couldn't shower, and as a result he had to lay in bed for two days, caked in clay.

"I knew it could have been a lot worse. We tried to kind of laugh about it a little bit, me and my coach. He stayed with me the whole time," Blake said.

Doctors finally diagnosed a fractured vertebra in his neck and discharged him in a brace. The device reminded him of his youth, when he was diagnosed with severe curvature of the spine and wore a back brace 18 hours a day for four years.

Blake had to withdraw from a tournament in Hamburg, the French Open and the short grass season in Europe, including Wimbledon. He returned home to Connecticut, where he learned to play poker, watched a lot of television and spent time with his family and friends.

Blake resumed his conditioning program and three days before the start of Wimbledon received permission to hit tennis balls. He played that Friday afternoon and thought about flying to England.

"My coach and I thought a little bit more rationally and decided against that because there is no way. I mean, by Monday, when I would have had to play, I was still just hitting for about an hour at a time and getting pretty sore."

Blake could have skipped Newport and gone directly to hard-court tournaments, which many players are doing in preparation for the Olympics in Athens next month. But he loves playing here and feels a sense of loyalty to the Hall of Fame chief executive, Mark Stenning, who gave him wild cards into the tournament when Blake was a college kid.

"I love playing Newport. I'm from Connecticut, so I get a lot of friends coming up," he said. He has been seeded No. 1 here in the past and reached the final in 2002 and the semifinal last year.

Since being cleared to play, Blake has been hitting with Mardy Fish and Jeff Morrison in Tampa. Getting used to the heat there was a challenge, he said.

Blake appreciates the little things in tennis since his harrowing experience.

"I think I'm going to be a little more enthusiastic on the court, just glad to be back," he said. "Just being out in practice is a lot of fun for me. I'm getting a kick out of playing baseline games and stuff. . . . I'm definitely going to be excited to be in Newport and be playing a match that counts for something and get those feelings of pressure, those feelings of a big match or just all the competitive juice you really want to get flowing. . . . I love being out there competing."

The tournament, the 28th of the men's pro tour and the first sponsored by Campbell's, starts today at 11 a.m. Matches will start at 11 through Friday. The semifinals Saturday will start at 2 p.m., after the Parade of Hall of Famers at noon in conjunction with the Hall's 50th anniversary. The finals Sunday will also start at 2 after the 1 o'clock Hall of Fame induction ceremonies for Steffi Graf, Stefan Edberg and Dorothy "Dodo" Cheney.

Vince Spadea, a U.S. Olympian from Boca Raton, Fla., is the number-one seed, the kiss of death at this tournament. No top seed has ever won the event. Blake is the second seed; Jurgen Melzer, the 2003 runner-up, third; Gregory Carraz, of France, fourth; Cyril Saulnier, also of France, fifth; Jan Michael-Gambill of Colbert, Wash., sixth; Alexander Popp, of Germany, seventh; and Anthony Dupuis, of France, eighth.