Blake's victory gives US a 2-0 Davis Cup lead

GOING STRONG: James Blake returns the ball to Mikhail Youzhny during the Davis Cup final tie.

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Portland (US): Even when James Blake was struggling in his Davis Cup match, he knew his teammates were behind him.

Blake fed off their support and held off feisty Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (3), 7-6 (3) on Friday night to give the United States a 2-0 lead over Russia in the Davis Cup final.

"They've believed in me the whole year, so I wanted to prove them right, to be honest," Blake said of the US team. "They've had confidence in me every time."

Blake's victory got the US within one win of their first Davis Cup title since 1995. Earlier, Andy Roddick cruised past Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 in the opening match on the hard court at Memorial Coliseum.

Bob and Mike Bryan can wrap it up for the US by winning their doubles match against Russia's Nikolay Davydenko and Igor Andreev on Saturday.

The crowd was on its feet when Blake went ahead in the final tiebreaker and Youzhny hit into the net for the US victory.

Blake, ranked 13th in the world, took a 5-2 first-set lead in a game that featured him making a spectacular return, running back to the baseline and hitting backward over his head. After the point Blake pumped his fists and Roddick joined the spectators in wild cheers.

But Blake appeared to tire in the second set, and 19th-ranked Youzhny went up 4-3. Blake talked out loud to himself, saying 'C'mon, c'mon."

Blake recovered to win the second set, but ran into trouble again in the third, when Youzhny won the tiebreaker.

It was US captain Patrick McEnroe and his teammates who pulled him through.

"Every time I came over I saw Patrick with a fist pump saying, 'Keep doing what you're doing,' That's the best feeling," Blake said. "That's the confidence I talked about that my teammates have, that if I play my game I'm going to give myself the best chance to win."

The marathon match, which Blake called the biggest win of his career so far, lasted 3 hours, 28 minutes.

Roddick threw his hands up in triumph after Tursunov's final return landed long in the first match. Roddick, ranked No. 6 in the world, improved to 6-0 in Davis Cup play this year.