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Second seed Nadal overcome by Blake

Tatiana Golovin of France hits a forehand return to Nathalie Dechy, also of France, during the third round during the US Open at the US Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, Saturday. Dechy defeated Golovin 7-5, 2-6, 6-2. PHOTO: EPA

American James Blake stunned No. 2 Rafael Nadal on Saturday, winning the last five games to cap a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 victory at the US Open.

The loss eliminates half of the US Open's top 10 seeds including No. 4 Andy Roddick on Tuesday and No. 6 Nikolay Davydenko on Friday.

When Blake served out the match, he dropped his racket and put his hands on his head.

"I wish I had a better vocabulary to describe it," he said. "When you have 20,000 people cheering your name, your best friends cheering you ... I wish, I truly wish every single person in here could have the feeling I have now."

A winner of nine tour events this year, including the ATP Masters Series Canada in Montreal last month, Nadal was disappointed with his performance.

"I feel bad because I played bad," he said. "The other thing is he played better.I just lost one of the best tournaments in the world, so I'm not very happy right now."

Justine Henin-Hardenne needed a second-set tiebreaker before overcoming South Korea's Cho Yoon-jeong 6-0, 7-6 (4) in the third-round. Sixth-seeded Elena Dementieva, who lost to fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in last year's Open final, beat No. 29 Anna Chakvetadze 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (5) despite 19 double-faults. No. 11-seeded Patty Schnyder advanced with a straight-sets win over 24th-seeded Shinobu Asagoe.

James Blake of the US celebrates after upsetting Rafael Nadal of Spain 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 at the US Open Tennis Championship in Flushing Meadows, New York, Saturday. PHOTO: AFP

Chile's Nicolas Massu beat Stanislas Wawrinka 6-4, 6-3, 6-0, advancing to the fourth round for the first time at a Grand Slam.

Andre Agassi, the highest-ranked American man left, also played Saturday afternoon, as did Amelie Mauresmo, the third-seeded woman. Lindsay Davenport and Robby Ginepri had the top billing at night.

Henin-Hardenne is one of those players who likes to play a lot of matches, especially before big tournaments. But she's had little chance to do that, missing the early part of the year with a broken bone in her knee and sitting out much of the summer with a pulled hamstring, and her rustiness has showed.

She played only two tournaments after the French, losing in the first round at Wimbledon and reaching the finals in Toronto.

"I think for me it's much harder to play my first rounds where I have a lot of pressure, where I have to win," Henin-Hardenne said. "I'm more comfortable when I know I'm going to play a seeded player. It's going to be a good test for me."

Henin-Hardenne will play either 12th-seeded Mary Pierce in a rematch of the French final, or No. 17 Jelena Jankovic.

The Belgian surged through the first set, dominating Cho with powerful ground strokes and a couple of nice plays at the net. She never allowed Cho a chance until the final game, when she double-faulted to give her double break point.

Henin-Hardenne got the game to deuce, then fought off two more break chances before closing the set. The second set seemed more of the same, with Henin-Hardenne racing to a 3-0 lead.

But just as she did in her second-round match, Henin-Hardenne lost focus. She had back-to-back double-faults to give Cho a break and her first game of the match, and the momentum suddenly shifted.

"She was quite faster than my first two opponents, and I had a hard time finding my rhythm," Cho said, speaking through an interpreter. "But in the second set, I got a little used to Justine's game, so I started playing aggressive."

Cho, who took Monica Seles to three sets in the third round of the 2002 Open, broke Henin-Hardenne to tie the second set at 4-4, then forced the tiebreak. But Henin-Hardenne won four of the last five points to end the match.

"It was very difficult to keep the intensity as high as it was [early on]," Henin-Hardenne said. "I could win this match probably earlier. But finally, when I had to be aggressive at the end of the set, I did."

Venus Williams will be trying to pull even in head-to-head play against sister Serena when they meet in the fourth round Sunday.

Serena has beaten her older sister seven times in their 13 meetings. Venus won the last time they played, snapping Serena's six-match winning streak.

Sunday's match will be the earliest the sisters have met in a Grand Slam tournament since they played in the second round at the 1998 Australian Open, the first time they faced each other as professionals.

They also squared off in the final of four majors: the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open in 2002 and the Australian Open and Wimbedon in 2003.
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