Blake Stays In The Hunt At Royal Albert Hall

Former World No. 4 James Blake came from behind to beat Younes El Aynaoui 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 in an absorbing Champions Tennis contest at the Royal Albert Hall on Friday evening.

While El Aynaoui, 44, was the steadier of the two players for much of the match, Blake eventually found his rhythm. Some crunching returns and trademark forehands helped turn the tide in his favour and he edged a nail-biting Champions Tie-break on his third match point.

WATCH: Point of the Day

Victory for the American means he keeps his qualification hopes alive. The outcome of Group A will be determined on Saturday afternoon when El Aynaoui meets Tim Henman.

The winner of the Group will play defending champion Fernando Gonzalez in Sunday’s final.

Elsewhere on Friday, Xavier Malisse overcame Magnus Larsson 7-6, 7-5 in Group B. Larsson was replacing the injured Sebastien Grosjean.

In the Tie Break Tens qualifiers, Xavier Malisse and Younes El Aynaoui set up a qualification showdown. Malisse beat Blake 10-3 and El Aynaoui overcame Gonzalez 10-7. The pair will face off on Saturday afternoon in a bid to join World No. 2 Andy Murray, Tim Henman, David Ferrer, John McEnroe and Kyle Edmund on Saturday evening.

Tie Break Tens, which starts at 6pm, will feature a six-man field split into two round-robin groups. The top two players in each group will go through to the semi-finals, with the winner taking away a cheque for $250,000. Each of the ten matches at Tie Break Tens will be contested over a first-to-ten-point tie-break.