Fourth-seeded American James Blake advanced to the quarterfinals of the US Men's Clay Court Championship on Thursday night, defeating Italian Davide Sanguinetti 7-5, 6-3.
It marks the third time Blake -- ranked 40th in the latest ATP rankings -- has reached the round of eight in his last four tournaments. He has won nine of his last 12 matches.
"It's good [to be in the quarters]," Blake said. "A lot of Americans tend to dread the clay court season, but I don't mind it. I didn't have a great one last year, but starting here like this is a good place to start, so hopefully I can do a lot better."
Sanguinetti dropped to just 3-7 this year, having lost in the first round in his previous four appearances.
Unseeded Tommy Haas of Germany ousted American Paul Goldstein, 6-4, 6-2, to reach his first quarterfinal since September 2002, at Tashkent.
Haas, who missed the entire 2003 season with a shoulder injury, made it to the fourth round last month at the Pacific Life Open but lost in the opening round in his three other outings this year.
"Match by match, you feel better," Haas said. "The more and more you play, the more you are going to get comfortable. It can take some time."
Goldstein broke Haas to get to 3-4 in the first set, but Haas broke back and won eight of the match's last 10 games.
"Breaking him back at 4-3 in the first set, I think that got it going for me," Haas said.
Goldstein won his first ATP match of the season in Chennai during the first week of the year and did not win again until defeating Thomas Enqvist in straight sets in the first round here on Tuesday.
In other second-round matches on Thursday, No. 7 seed Andrei Pavel of Romania ousted Argentina's Jose Acasuso 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, and Dmitry Tursunov of Russia toppled American Alex Bogomolov 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.
"The biggest reason why my coach gets angry with me is I get angry [on the court]," Tursunov said. "The first and third sets were good for me out there. I felt like I was really in control and that -- for a change -- I didn't need to rush."
Top seed Andy Roddick had cruised into the quarterfinals on Wednesday with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over fellow American Robert Kendrick.
It was Roddick's second ATP Tour match on clay this season following 33 -- including Davis Cup action -- on hard courts.
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