In the doubles draw, the brothers Blake dominated play until the semifinals, where a more experienced pair of brothers took the Blakes out.

"In the semis we lost to the Bryan twins from Stanford," James Blake said. "They have played together for quite a while and really know how to play doubles together."

The 6-2, 7-6 (7-1) loss highlighted the contrast between the experienced Bryan brothers and the relatively inexperienced Blakes.

"We've played almost no doubles together; we're very inexperienced," James Blake said. "The only time before was at the U.S. Open qualifying tournament. We played great together, and the coaches thought it seemed like a good idea."

For James Blake, the importance of the Roles tournament was not lost as he took the court for the first time.

"I beat a seed in the first round," Blake said. "I started off tentative. There are four big tournaments in a year and I missed the first two.

"Playing a seed in the first round of my first big tournament, I was nervous. Once I got into the swing of things, I did just fine."

Putting things in perspective for the Harvard team, the younger Blake feels that his weekend was a positive sign.

"For the team, this is a good sign for things to come," Blake said. "We have a solid one-two combination and the intimidation factor should help us. In two weeks we'll play at least three of the top-ranked teams in the nation, and we'll see how good as a team we really are."

In the meantime, the Blake brothers have already given notice as to how good they are.