WIMBLEDON, England(AP) Bothered by pain from a lingering right knee injury, James Blake is dealing with doubts about his tennis future.
Blake has been a top-five player, a Grand Slam quarterfinalist three times, a U.S. Davis Cup team regular - and on Tuesday he was thinking aloud about where things stand for his career after a 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 loss to 151st-ranked Robin Haase of the Netherlands in Wimbledon's first round.
``It's almost embarrassing to go out and play a Grand Slam match like that,'' said the 109th-ranked Blake, who had a testy exchange with ESPN reporter Pam Shriver between points, saying he thought her commentary was too loud and distracting.
He went 0 for 9 on break-point chances and made more than twice as many unforced errors as Haase, 23-10.
The knee is not great,'' Blake said.If it doesn't get better soon, I'm not sure how much longer I want to play in pain.''
The 30-year-old Blake, who is based in Tampa, Fla., began having problems with his knee more than a year ago, but continued playing, refusing to use painkillers or anti-inflammatory medicine because he worries about their long-term effects.
Just gradually got worse and worse until it got to a point where I just couldn't take playing at 80 percent. I can't beat these guys at 80 percent. I can't beat a lot of them at 100 percent on a given day. So to think that I'm going to compete with the top level of the game at 80 percent is just silly,'' he said.Maybe it's just getting old, I don't know.''
He took more than two months off the tour this season, not playing from March 26 - when he lost at Key Biscayne, Fla. - until last week, when he lost his opening match on grass at Eastbourne. The hope was that the rest would be enough.
Maybe it says to me that I came back too soon,'' Blake said,or maybe I'm just too far away (from) where I think I need to be.''
The American earned a career-best ranking of No. 4 in late 2006, and also finished the 2008 season in the top 10.
He doesn't want to have knee surgery - ``At this point in my career, I don't know if surgery is a viable option,'' he said - and will try to compete on the summer hard-court circuit, including the U.S. Open, before evaluating things.
If my life is going to change after the Open,'' Blake said,then I'll have to be anxious and see what comes next.''
COMING UP ACES: Defending Wimbledon champion Serena Williams' serve is in good shape at the moment - she hit 15 aces and won all 27 points when she got a first serve in during her opening-round victory Tuesday.
It's her curtsy that she thinks needs work.
After wrapping up a 6-0, 6-4 win over 17-year-old Michelle Larcher de Brito of Portugal, Williams gave a curtsy toward the Royal Box, well aware that Queen Elizabeth II plans to visit Wimbledon for the first time since 1977 on Thursday.
Williams will be scheduled to play that day and has been working on her etiquette.
I want it to be more natural,'' she said.Right now it feels really forced. Seems like I've never done a curtsy before, which may be true. But I'm looking forward to nailing it.''
There were no such issues with her play against Larcher de Brito, as Williams improved to 43-0 over her career in first-round matches at Grand Slam events. The No. 1-ranked American finished with a 47-6 advantage in winners and pounded serves at up to 119 mph.
It's not even about the pace, because I could deal with that,'' Larcher de Brito said.But she places it so well. When she aims for targets, she really hits that line or just clips that line.''
Larcher de Brito hits the ball hard, too, and there were several lengthy baseline exchanges, accompanied by loud grunts from both players.
A year ago, Larcher de Brito's on-court shrieking drew attention and criticism, and she was quieter Tuesday.
Asked about her stroke-accompanying noise, she said: ``Anything with my grunting, I don't want to answer. I don't want to go down the same road again.''
FAST FAREWELLS: A tad more than two weeks ago, Samantha Stosur played in her first Grand Slam final, facing Francesca Schiavone for the French Open title. Neither woman lasted long at Wimbledon: Both lost in the first round.
French Open runner-up Stosur was seeded sixth at the All England Club, but she exited meekly Tuesday, beaten 6-4, 6-4 by 80th-ranked qualifier Kaia Kanepi of Estonia.
It was Stosur's fourth first-round exit in eight appearances at Wimbledon.
I'm no doubt disappointed. Yeah, not really any other way to say it, really. I wanted to do a lot better here than what I had in previous years. I didn't,'' the Australian said.So, yeah, it's unfortunate, but I'll come back next year and try even harder.''
She entered the grass-court Grand Slam tournament with a tour-leading 35 match wins in 2010 and her career-best ranking, thanks in large part to what she did in Paris. Stosur knocked off current No. 1 Serena Williams and former No. 1s Justine Henin and Jelena Jankovic en route to the final, before losing to Schiavone.
There wasn't a lot of time to recover from that run on the red clay of Roland Garros.
I'm not going to use that as an excuse. It's the same for everyone,'' Stosur said.But it definitely is a quick turnaround.''
Schiavone lost her Wimbledon opener on Monday.
The champions of the game can do it back-to-back, and I guess that's the kind of pedestal that you want to try to look up to and try to get to yourself,'' Stosur said.Neither of us had made it that far at the French and then had to turn it around in such a quick time frame. You know, that's the way it is. You have to deal with that, try and cope as best you can.''