Almost. If one needed a single word to describe Tommy Haas and James Blake, that might be it. Few tennis players have the talent to play as they do, yet because of misfortune, bad timing, and bad performances at the wrong moments, neither man has quite scaled the heights that many have hoped they would.

At the U.S. Open yesterday, Haas and Blake played a seesaw five-set match that typified their careers: It turned less on what each man did, but what each man was incapable of doing. Neither one could seize the moment, neither one could extend a lead or put the finishing touches on a struggling opponent. Blake won the first set and earned an early break in the second set, then Haas charged back to take the set. Blake seemed to wrest the match away from Haas in the third set, then Haas walloped Blake in the fourth set, losing 15 points. Haas immediately broke Blake in the fifth set, but let his lead slip and eventually gave Blake a match point on a double fault. Blake got there two more times, and Haas hit two more service winners.

At 3–3 in the tiebreaker, Haas escaped what might have been a crushing blow. He drew Blake, the fastest man on the tour, to the net with a drop shot, lobbed him, and when Blake returned the ball over his shoulder and again charged the net, Haas hit another lob, this one with more pace, more spin, and more confidence. Blake double faulted on the next point and Haas took care of the rest, prevailing 4–6, 6–4, 3–6, 6–0, 7–6(4) and denying Blake, a quarter-finalist here the last two years, his best chance at his first Grand Slam semifinal, which likely would have seen him play Roger Federer on Saturday.

“I think if I would have lost that point, the crowd would have gone absolutely ballistic,” Haas said of the double lob exchange. “That might have given him an extra edge, the adrenaline to maybe — who knows.”

Who knows, what if — there have been plenty of those moments in the careers of both of these men. Despite their contrasting styles and attitudes on court — Blake is usually calm and sometimes sulks, while Haas rarely misses an opportunity to curse (which earned him a warning yesterday) or let a racket fly — these two are astonishingly similar in the things that matter most: character, wins, losses, titles, and clutch performances. Both have returned from serious injuries and tragedies, in Blake’s case, a broken neck and the death of his father, and in Haas’s case, two shoulder operations and the near death of his parents in a 2002 motorcycle accident. Both have achieved rankings inside the top 5 (Haas was once ranked no. 2 and Blake recently rose to no. 4), yet neither one has advanced to the final of a Grand Slam tournament (Blake has two quarterfinals at the U.S. Open and Haas three semifinals at the Australian Open). Haas holds 11 titles, Blake 10. Both have career losing records against top 10 players, and a combined record, after Haas’s victory yesterday, of 4–18 against top 10 players in Grand Slams.

Haas, 29, and Blake, 27, are both nearing the end of their primes, too, and the question now is, how many more chances will they get, and will they ever make good on one? Blake sounded disappointed that he missed his latest opportunity, but said he couldn’t be ashamed of his effort.

“Just another unfortunate learning experience today where I didn’t take advantage in a tiebreaker,” Blake said. “But I felt like I was doing everything else I could to do it right.”

Haas has the same tough road ahead of him this year as last year. He next plays Nikolay Davydenko, the steady Russian who beat Haas in the quarterfinals last year despite losing the first two sets. Haas has made no secret of his dislike for Davydenko, whom he has compared to a ball machine (better, I suppose, than a slot machine, considering the gambling investigation concerning a recent Davydenko match). When Haas finally beat the Russian at this year’s Australian Open, saving a match point, he admitted that “revenge” was indeed sweet. If he takes revenge again, he’ll likely have to face Federer, the man who has all the luck, and all the talent for stepping up when the moment is right, that Haas has lacked.

Andy Roddick will take a crack at Federer first. The American has lost nine consecutive matches to Federer and 13 of their 14, but he never seems to tire of the challenge, which is a lot more than one might say of Tomas Berdych, Roddick’s opponent yesterday. The 6-foot-5-inch Czech has ferocious ground strokes but a timid heart; he retired early in the second set yesterday because he felt ill and had trouble breathing, though nothing stopped him from earning a set point in the first set tiebreaker. Berdych’s coach, Jaroslav Navratil, who had not spoken to Berdych at the time of this interview, was miffed.

“I’m not happy because he has good chance, because he’s playing well and likes to play [Roddick’s] game,” Navratil said. “There’s no pressure. All the pressure was on Roddick.”

Berdych has disappointed so much of late that it’s hard to understand how he defeated Federer in the 2004 Olympics. He has never beaten a top 10 player at a Grand Slam tournament, and though he is just 21 years old, it’s easy to see him headed for disappointment for years to come, rather than major titles. When asked if he was worried about that, Navratil said, “For sure.”

“Not too many chances,” he said. “Especially when you feel good and have good form.”

Haas and Blake could have told him that.

Mr. Perrotta is a senior editor at Tennis magazine. He can be reached at tperrotta@nysun.com.