Stepanek beats Blake, ‘curse’

A former boyfriend, golf pro Sergio Garcia, imploded across the Pond earlier Sunday, losing the British Open in a playoff.

So, the question at UCLA’s Countrywide Classic was this: Could a tennis-playing fiance, Radek Stepanek, do what so many have failed to do before him, and dodge the formidable curse of Martina Hingis?

Yes.

The answer took time to unfold, 2 hours 15 minutes, during a high-quality final between Stepanek and second-seeded James Blake.

Stepanek, who thought his career might be over last summer because of a dislocated disk in his neck, survived Blake’s potent groundstrokes with formidable defense, a deft touch and a terrific serving performance in the latter stages to win, 7-6 (7), 5-7, 6-2.

When Stepanek was sidelined, he seemed to be the latest in a long line of Hingis’ boyfriends who either succumbed to injury or dropped in the rankings after meeting her. One national sports magazine called her the “black widow” of men’s tennis.

Perhaps no longer.

Stepanek saved three set points in the tiebreaker, and also fended off a pro-Blake crowd and his own fragility -- a tour trainer tended to his ailing left hamstring after the third game of the third set.

Neither Hingis nor his coach was on hand at UCLA. So they were truly left in suspense when the TV transmission of the final vaporized right before match point, leaving Stepanek’s support team in limbo. They didn’t get to see his backhand passing shot on match point or his faint imitation of break dancing afterward, at least not in real time.

“I don’t know what I did,” said Stepanek, who was out for six months and lost the feeling in his right hand. “I just couldn’t believe that I was able to win it. I just felt a release in the body and I just fell down. I’m the kind of person who is showing emotion.

”... Once, I tried to show zero emotion on the court. I lost the match, 6-0, 6-1. And I was counting points, not the games. So that match showed me I can’t play with a poker face.”

Said Blake, who had just three winners to Stepanek’s 14 in the third set: “It’s a good effort. I think a lot of people would look at this as a loss to a player maybe I should have beaten. But if you don’t watch the tennis, you don’t see how well I was playing and how much these guys are really fighting to beat me.”

Blake could appreciate Stepanek’s long journey back from the abyss, having come back from his own career-threatening injury in 2004 -- a broken neck, followed by facial paralysis. He joked about Stepanek’s celebration, saying he “couldn’t really tell” if the Czech player was happy to win.

Stepanek likened the pain to being knifed. As recently as his last event, last week in chilly Gstaad, Switzerland, where he reached the semifinals, he felt the loss of feeling again.

“I called my doctor and I was nearly crying because I was not able to change the grip during the rally, in my hand. I said, ‘Don’t tell me, it’s coming again,’ ” said Stepanek, who was ranked as high as No. 8 before the injury.

Southern California warmth changed everything, and the unseeded Stepanek dropped one set in this tournament, though he had a walkover in the semis.

“I’m feeling the hand completely different,” he said. “So maybe I have to move to the States.”

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Top-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan, finalists at Wimbledon, won their fourth title at UCLA and 40th career ATP Tour championship, beating unseeded Scott Lipsky and David Martin, 7-6 (5), 6-2. All four finalists played for Stanford.

“It feels really good to win our fourth title here in L.A.,” Mike Bryan said. “It erases everything that happened at Wimbledon.”

lisa.dillman@latimes.com