By Lauren Lynch
Photo Credit: Sean Bradley

(April 5, 2011) On Tuesday at the US Men's Clay Court Championships in Houston, the only men's clay court tournament remaining in the United States. After beating Donald Young in the last qualifying round, the world's fastest server Ivo Karlovic takes to the court against fifth seed Benjamin Becker. Ivo Karlovic is ranked as the World No. 174 and recently made it to the quarterfinals in Indian Wells, where he lost to Rafael Nadal. Karlovic leads head-to-head series with Becker 5-0 and won the US Men's Clay Court title in 2007.

Young American hopeful Ryan Harrison will have an exciting meet up with Argentine Horacio Zeballos, last year's new comer of the year. Harrison is the World no. 133 while Zeballos is the World No. 94 and made it to last year's semifinal to lose to the defending champion Juan Ignacio Chela. Ryan Harrison is coming off a career high in the rankings after getting to the fourth round of Indian Wells after defeating Milos Raonic and then losing to Roger Federer.

There is a good all-American line up on Court 3 as wild card Ryan Sweeting meets with qualifier Tim Smyczek. American Robert Kendrick will meet India's Somdev Devvarman. Brad Gilbert's new protege and sixth seed Kei Nishikori faces-off with Croatian Franco Krugar.

On Court 7, Spanish Albery Ramos will face Brian Dabul- the winner will face first seed Mardy Fish. German Mischa Zverev is playing Russian Igor Kunitsyn. Russian Teymuraz Gabashvilli plays qualifier Paul Capdeville of Chile.

This evening, World No.163 James Blake will take on Argentine World No. 72 Carlos Belocq. Blake leads their head-to-head series 1-0 and Blake was the finalist in 2008 in Houston. Mardy Fish has shown that age is not as much as a factor so it will be interesting to see what Blake will do with the opportunity to come back to this tournament where he has been strong in the past.

At Indian Wells this year, Blake was asked about what he thought about being called an underachiever and he responded, "I would love anyone that's ever called me an underachiever to come do my workouts for a week. Come with me and see what I do, see what kind of effort I put in. And all the people that say I played not so smart to come to the practices where I've tried to play the way they expect me to play. The funny thing is people think I don't know other ways to play, I can only do one thing. Well, if you've been with me for the last ten years or watched me, I've tried it, and it doesn't work. You know, people have different skill sets. I can't go out and serve 140 like Andy. I can't go out and defend like Rafa does. I can't play ways that other guys play. I just don't have that skill set. I know what my skills are I know what I'm best at. I know what gets me wins, and I do that. There are times it will get me losses too, because I have to play sometimes high-risk tennis."

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