The US' James Blake faces a Davis Cup rematch with Russian Marat Safin after they booked semi-final places yesterday at the Thailand Open.
The third-seeded Blake downed Jarkko Nieminen 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 in a victory that steps up his fight for a place in November's season-ending Masters Cup.
Former world No. 1 Safin, who is making his comeback after a year of knee problems, overcame tough resistance from Russian-born German teenager Mischa Zverev to win 7-6 (7/4), 5-7, 7-5.
PHOTO: AP
Safin will be seeking revenge when he meets Blake who downed the Russian Grand Slam champion in the fifth rubber of the Davis Cup semi-final in Moscow earlier this month. Russia however had already crushed the US.
Safin, ranked 72nd, yesterday produced 47 unforced errors and 24 winners in his battle with Zverev, the lowest-ranked player in the last eight here.
Blake, now 48-21 on the season, nudged into provisional eighth place for the eight-man season-ending event Shanghai with his victory yesterday.
PHOTO: EPA
Rival Marcos Baghdatis, forced to withdraw before the Asian event with injury, is now ninth.
Blake said he expected a tough battle against the Russian today's semi-final. Their record stands at two wins each.
"I don't expect Marat to be intimidated by the situation," he said.
PHOTO: AP
"He's been there before. Marat can hurt you from the baseline. Our matches always seem to have a tiebreak or two and we'll see who has adjusted better to the hard courts after last week on clay," Blake added.
During his match, Blake fired 11 aces but lost his serve five times in his quarter-final battle with Finland's Nieminen.
Blake twice came back from a break down in the final set, earning victory after just over 90 minutes, as Nieminen stretched to reach a deep return and sailed the ball long over the baseline on match point.
Blake, 26, owns three titles, this season, trailing only Roger Federer with eight and Rafael Nadal with five.
Korea Open
A day after she sent top seed Martina Hingis crashing out of the Korea Open, Sania Mirza was eliminated yesterday by Spain's Virginia Ruano Pascual.
There was little to choose between the two quarter-finalists, who battled it out for two hours and 54 minutes on a warm afternoon at Seoul Olympic Park.
But Ruano Pascual finally got home 7-6, 4-6, 7-6 on day five of the US$145,000 event.
"Losing six in the third is always tough," the 19 year-old Indian star told reporters after the game. "There wasn't much more I could do. It was a great match, and you learn a lot from matches like this."
The first set marked the standard for the rest of the match. Mirza showed flashes of the brilliance that undid the world number eight the previous day, as well as a number of unforced errors.
Accurate groundstrokes from the powerful Spanish player kept the pair neck and neck.
Mirza received treatment for muscle cramp after the fourth and sixth games of the second set but still managed to step up a gear. Despite letting her opponent off the hook on two occasions, she eventually took the set 6-4.
With both players tiring, neither could seize the initiative in the final set and it was little surprise when it went to a tie-break. Mirza had already survived two match points but lost the tie-break 7-3 amid a number of controversial over-rulings by the umpire.
"I met Virginia in the locker room and she said that she had never seen three over-rules in a tie-break before," said Mirza. "It does spoil the game but sometimes it goes for you and sometimes against."
Ruano Pascual will be in action in today's semi-final against the winner of the Ai Sugiyama and Paola Suarez quarter-final.
Earlier in the day fifth seed Vera Zvonareva was defeated by Eleni Daniilidou in straight sets. The Greek player will face either third seed Marion Bartoli or Akiko Morigami in today's other semi-final.
Mumbai Opem
Top-seeded Tommy Robredo of Spain and No. 2 Mario Ancic of Croatia stayed on course for the title clash in the ATP Mumbai Open with contrasting second round wins on Thursday.
World number seven Robredo overcame a sluggish start to beat Michael Berrer of Germany 5-7, 6-2, 6-4, and enter the quarter-finals of the 375,000-dollar event at the Cricket Club of India courts.
Ancic, ranked 11th in the world, defeated Stefano Galvani of Italy 6-1, 7-6 (8/6), and later stressed he was in good physical condition after being out of the circuit for two months due to a back injury.
"Making the final in Beijing two weeks ago and two matches here have given me confidence that my back is holding up well," he said.
"I want to play as many matches as possible and return to my best."
Both Robredo and Ancic are looking to win the Mumbai tournament to stay in contention for the elite eight-player Masters Cup in Shanghai in November.
There were also victories for third-seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic and the fourth-seed Russian Dmitry Tursunov, but eighth-seed Wesley Moodie of South Africa crashed out.
Berdych, ranked 13th in the world, survived a shaky start to overcome Simon Greul of Germany 7-6 (7/4), 6-4.
"I was a bit ill and tired after playing on the second successive day, but I am glad I came through," said Berdych.
Tursunov, Russia's Davis Cup hero in the defeat of the US over the weekend, fought a tough two-hour battle with Kristian Pless of Denmark before scraping through 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 6-4.
Tursunov next plays British qualifier James Auckland, who advanced to the quarter-final with a 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/5) win over the 73rd-ranked Moodie.
Tursunov, world No. 22, said he would not take victory for granted against the 414th-ranked Auckland.
"I have learnt there are no easy matches on the circuit," the Russian said.
"You usually fall on your backside if you expect to win easily," he said.
Sixth-seed Bjorn Phau of Germany will meet Berdych in the quarter-finals after defeating Gouichi Motomura of Japan by an identical 6-3, 6-3 margin.
Argentine Juan del Potro, who stunned former world number one Carlos Moya in the first round, conceded his match to Ramon Delgado of Paraguay after falling ill in the second set.
Potro lost the first set 3-6 and was trailing 1-4 in the second when he vomited on court and declined to continue in the stifling hot conditions.
Delgado faces Robredo in the quarter-finals.
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