In a shot maker shootout, Jeremy Chardy went out with a big bang.
The 22-year-old Chardy crushed 24 aces, frequently finding the bulls-eye of the back wall, to bounce James Blake out of Basel, 7-6(4), 6-7(6), 6-4 in the opening round of the Davidoff Swiss Indoors in Basel today.
World No. 31 Chardy closed with a forceful flourish, cracking three consecutive aces to close out the two hour, 16 minute match in his first meeting with Blake. Chardy will take on Russian qualifier Evgeny Korolev for a place in the quarterfinals.
The match featured just one break of serve as Blake dropped serve in the final set and could never make an impression on the Chardy serve.
Though Chardy's last two losses have come against players ranked No. 100 or above — he lost to Ernests Gulbis in St. Petersburg and Stephane Robert in last month's Orleans Challenger — he showed the explosive game that could make him a top 20 player next season.
The seventh-seeded Blake entered the event ranked No. 41 — the first time he's fallen from the top 40 since August 29, 2005 when he was ranked 49th — and now stands as the fourth ranked American behind No. 6 Andy Roddick, No. 24 Sam Querrey, No. 40 John Isner, who is set to take on Fernando Gonzalez later today.
Richard Gasquet, who defeated Horacio Zeballos, 7-6(3), 6-4, will face either the third-seeded Gonzalez or Isner in the round of 16.
