Weird situation for Blake

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - The ATP has reversed its decision to award James Blake a quarter-final berth at the Las Vegas Open, after bending a rule to allow him through. Russian Evgeny Korolev, who should have gone through under the rules, will now take his place in the last eight. Needing to beat Argentine Juan Martin del Potro with the loss of no more than five games to advance on Thursday, top seed Blake was leading 6-1 3-1 when his opponent retired because of breathing problems. Blake was then told he would not progress as the rules stated games won or lost in a walkover did not count and that Korolev would go through on a head-to-head basis after the Russian beat the American earlier in the competition. After lengthy discussions the ATP backtracked and awarded Blake a place in the last eight, only to change its decision again on Friday. In a statement, the ATP said "an incorrect variation of ATP rules resulted in the erroneous passage of James Blake into the quarter-finals. "The relevant rule states an incomplete match shall not count as a match played for the retiring player. This eliminated del Potro (from Group 1) based on the tiebreak procedure for greatest number of completed matches and left only Blake and Korolev tied with 1-1 records. "Therefore, under ATP rules Korolev should have advanced having beaten Blake in their round-robin encounter. RULE BOOK "The same rule book prevents the ATP chairman and president or any ATP staff member from making a judgment call on the rules, as no variation can be implemented without ATP board approval. "The rules state the final decision at a tournament rests solely with the ATP supervisor." ATP chief executive Etienne de Villiers said: "I was contacted late at night my time and did not fully understand the issues being discussed and I made a judgment call on what seemed fair. "However, I understand judgment calls are not part of the rule book and I must abide by the rules, as must everybody else in the circumstance." De Villiers apologised to Blake and Korolev for all the confusion. "This is of course an unpleasant situation...I apologize to James for giving false hope and to Evgeny. Clearly, I was wrong to intervene. "I have always maintained we should experiment with new and different ideas and it was with this in mind I made what I thought was a fair call. I regret I got involved, that I over-ruled a supervisor and I regret this storm in a teacup." De Villiers said the future of round-robin play has now been put on the agenda for the ATP board meeting which starts in Miami on March 22.

Wow, that is weird. I haven't heard of sports bending the rules AFTER a game was played??