Basle, Switzerland - James Blake failed to impress in his first European indoor event of what could be a brief end-of-season, with the former Top 10 player eliminated 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (6-8), 6-4 in the first round of the Swiss Indoors Wednesday by Jeremy Chardy. The French winner sent seventh-seeded American to a 3-3 record since the US Open, with Blake losing in consecutive weeks in Asia to Rafael Nadal at Beijing and Shanghai.
The 29-year-old looks to be having a tough time settling in with new coach Kelly Jones after three events after the new mentor replaced his long-time coach (since age 12) following the US Open.
Blake is languishing outside the ATP Top 40 for the first time in more than five years. He is now the number four American behind Andy Roddick, Sam Querrey and 40th-ranked John Isner after standing longtime second.
Last weekend's Vienna finalist Marin Cilic, the fourth seed, secured a 6-4, 6-4 win over German Philipp Petzschner to reach the second round and keep long-odds hopes alive for one of the last two spots in the year-end finals.
Croatian Cilic will need to win Basle to start, a particularly difficult task thanks to the presence of hometown hero Roger Federer, champion of the last three editions and ready to scorch through the remainder of the season after taking six weeks off after September Davis Cup.
Federer was playing for the quarter-final later against Italian Andreas Seppi, against whom he has never lost a set in five meetings, including three 2009 wins.
Cilic trails provisional 12th in the race to the London World Tour Finals, with more than 800 points to make up on Fernando Verdasco, standing eighth.
"I will have to play some unbelievable tennis over the next weeks," admitted Cilic after losing the Vienna final to Jurgen Melzer.
Richard Gasquet added a second French win on the day as he put out Horacio Zeballos of 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 to next play either former champion and third seed Fernando Gonzalez or American Isner, making his Basle debut.
