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Kohlschreiber beats third seed Blake at Gerry Weber Open

Philipp Kohlschreiber celebrates his victory over James Blake in their quarter-final match of the ATP International Series tennis tournament in Halle, Germany, on Friday. PHOTO: AP

Philipp Kohlschreiber upset third seed James Blake 6-4, 6-3 on a slippery court on Friday to reach the semi-finals of the Gerry Weber Open.

The 34th-ranked German broke Blake's serve at love to take a 5-4 lead in the first set, then got another break at 4-3 in the second in front of 8,000 cheering home fans at the grass-court warmup for Wimbledon.

"I just played good, I was always ahead," Kohlschreiber said. "I thought, OK, I'm in the quarter-finals against the No. 8, nobody can blame me if I lose."

Kohlschreiber next faces eighth seed Marcos Baghdatis, who defeated Florian Mayer 6-3, 6-3.

Jarkko Nieminen also reached the semi-finals when Marc Gicquel withdrew with stomach pains after dropping the first set 6-4. The Finn will face fourth seed Tomas Berdych, who had a walkover after Mikhail Youzhny withdrew with back pains.

Blake was disappointed with his performance.

"I did not play like a top player. That's frustrating, but he gave me a chance to beat myself and I did that," Blake said.

The second-set break came after rain forced organizers to close the retractable roof. Both players still slipped several times on the wet grass, and Blake said officials should have let the courts dry before play resumed.

"Coming up to Wimbledon, I really would rather not twist my knee, my ankle on a court like this," Blake said. "You just wait 10 minutes, the match is still going to be finished. They have a roof, it's not like we are going to be here all night. So I really don't understand that."

Baghdatis needed less than an hour to beat the 37th-ranked Mayer, who didn't come close to threatening the former Australian Open finalist.

Gicquel was hit by a serve in his win against Benjamin Becker on Thursday, delaying play several minutes as he lay on the court.

"I felt very bad. I had stomach problems already last night, had to throw up," the Frenchman said.
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