Coming off a first-round loss in the French Open to a qualifier making his Grand Slam main draw debut, former Fairfield resident and two-time Pilot Pen men's singles champion James Blake was looking to rediscover his form.

Well, getting off the clay seemed to be just what Blake needed. After a first-round bye, he defeated Ivan Ljubicic, Sam Querrey and most recently Mikhail Youzhny to reach the semifinals against second-seeded Andy Roddick at the Queen's Club event, a grass-court tournament in London.

I wasn't able to attend the auditions for on-court singers at the Pilot Pen, heading to UConn to catch up with Caroline Doty and her recovery from a torn ACL before covering a high school baseball game in Middletown. Fortunately, there was a well-done report filed by Annie Rourke of WTNH about the event.