It was a rude homecoming this Monday for James Blake ’01.

The former Harvard tennis star gave Boston Lobsters fans only a few glimpses of the skill that earned him the No. 1 collegiate ranking as an undergraduate when the Lobsters fell to the Springfield (Mo.) Lasers, 24-14, before 1,317 fans at the Bright Hockey Center.

Blake, currently ranked No. 73 on the ATP tour, is moonlighting for the WTT’s Lobsters as he tries to return to form after suffering two injuries that took him off the court for a year dating back to last May. He did not live up to the “marquee” billing he shares with other WTT players including past greats Martina Navratilova and John McEnroe and current WTA No. 1 Lindsay Davenport, losing his men’s doubles match and winning his singles match in a tiebreak only after coming alive to overcome a 3-0 deficit.

Blake, who lost in the opening round at Wimbledon last month, said before the match that his goal for the summer was to play as much competitive tennis as possible and return to his earlier form. Before a fractured vertebrate and then shingles hampered his rise up the rankings, he was seeded as high as No. 22 in the world.

“The actual strokes, my physical fitness, is getting to the point where I feel like I’m better than I was when I was ranked 22 in the world,” Blake said.

Blake, and his brother Thomas Blake ’98, who like the younger James received All-American honors while at Harvard, opened the WTT regular season match playing doubles against the Lasers’ Rick Leach and Rik De Voest. James barely saw the ball early in the set, and poor net play by Thomas saw the brothers fall behind the Lasers 2-0.

The third game of the set provided James with his first opportunity to shine. His powerful serve proved too much for the Lasers. Four separate serves went unreturned by de Voest alone, and the Lobsters were on the scoreboard for the first time.

But it was all downhill from there, as the Harvard brothers were run off the court by the superior Lasers, 5-1.

Springfield kept rolling in the women’s doubles event. Boston’s “Lady Lobsters” Deja Bedanova and Kristen Schlukebir hung in the match early, but down 3-2, the Lasers’ aptly-named Kaysie Smashey made quick work of the Lobsters with an ace and two unreturnable serves.

The Lasers went on to drown the Lobsters 5-2 to take the set.

Bedanova then lost 5-3 in her women’s singles match against Kelly McCain, and at the half, the Lobsters went into the locker room down 15-6.

Blake was lackluster early in his singles match against De Voest, falling behind 3-0 to a player who lost in the second round of Wimbledon qualifying this year.

“It was a slow start,” Blake said. “You expect a 40-year-old to have a slow start, not a 25-year-old.”

But then, Blake suddenly came alive.

Behind the strength of three aces—powerful shots that sent ball boys and courtside spectators literally scrambling and ducking for safety—Blake won his service match to climb back to 1-3. He went on to win the next three games, though de Voest would force a tiebreak by tying the set at 4-4. But Blake won the tiebreak 5-3, giving him the set at 5-4.