Top seed Andy Roddick beat Mardy Fish 7-6, 1-6, 7-5, in the quarter-finals of the San Jose Open on Friday but James Blake lost in straight sets to Robby Ginepri. Unseeded Ginepri ousted Blake 6-2, 6-2 as the world No. 9 fell short of a title for the second week in a row.
Last week Blake was stunned in the Delray Beach final by Japanese teenager Kei Nishikori. He had beaten Ginepri in the semi-finals to reach the title match there.
However, Ginepri, who reached a career-high ranking of No. 15 in December 2005 but entered this tournament ranked 138th, had little trouble against Blake.
Ginepri, 25, will next face fourth-seeded Czech Radek Stepanek, who defeated Taiwan's Lu Yen-hsun 6-2, 7-6 (7/5).
Lu beat big-serving Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Wayne Odesnik of the US before his straight sets defeat against Stepanek, ranked No. 34 in the world.
Roddick struggled to get past Fish, who returned his serve well and consistently attacked the net.
Ahead 6-4 in the first set tiebreaker, Fish committed a forehand error and then watched Roddick produce three brilliant winners to win it 8-6.
Fish came back in the second set when Roddick suffered a meltdown. Roddick also received a code violation for lobbing a ball across the court and into the stands.
The two slugged it out in the deciding set before Fish missed an easy backhand volley and forehand down the line to lose the match.
"There wasn't much between us," Roddick said.
"I'm close to playing well and I feel like it's just around the corner. I'm confident in tough situations and I feel like I'm hitting the ball well," he said.
Fish felt that match was within his grasp.
"I'm pretty disappointed," he said.
"Winning matters a ton. I'm not 21 anymore, looking for experience. That's long gone. I know I had some chances. Going deep in these tournaments would mean a lot," Fish said.
In the semi-finals, Roddick will face Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, who beat American John Isner 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (1/7), 7-6 (13/11).
Garcia-Lopez overcame 22 aces by Isner, who squandered four match points and remains in search of his first career ATP title.
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