Blake serves his way to Stockholm semifinals
STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Defending champion James Blake regrouped after a difficult first set Friday, using his big serve to defeat Olivier Rochus 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-2 and reach the semifinals of the Stockholm Open.
Later in doubles, John McEnroe and Jonas Bjorkman lost to Simon Aspelin and Todd Perry 7-6 (6), 7-6 (2).
The 47-year-old McEnroe, playing only his second doubles match since winning an ATP event at San Jose, Calif., with Bjorkman in February, has 78 doubles titles. That's second only to Todd Woodbridge's 83 titles.
"We threw away the first set," McEnroe said of being up 3-0 in the first. "We were up in the second, but they kept on fighting, but they wanted it bad.
"Obviously, it could have gone either way. We had a lot of chances, we should have won the first set, even the second set. We served for the second set. We should have won in straight sets. But we lost."
In singles, fifth-seeded Jarkko Nieminen also won his quarterfinal, beating Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 7-5 for the Finn's third consecutive straight-set victory in the indoor tournament at Royal Tennis Hall.
Nieminen will next meet wild card Joachim Johansson, who saved three match points before edging seventh-seeded Kristof Vliegen of Belgium 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 7-6 (7). Johansson, in his first ATP event since February, was ranked 690th entering the tournament. The Swede upset top-seeded Rafael Nadal in the first round.
Blake, seeded second, won the tournament in his first appearance in the Swedish capital last year and is undefeated in eight matches. Last year, he beat Rochus in the semifinals.
"He played me tough here last year and I knew it would be tough [today]," Blake said. "But I served well enough and got out of tricky situations. Sometimes that happens when you got confidence."
Blake finished with 16 aces.
"Last year when I played him here I had a lot of aces, too," he said. "So it's maybe something about when you're on the same [center] court that you're familiar with or playing the same opponent. I serve well when I play him here and that's a good feeling."
After splitting the first two sets, Blake broke to lead 3-2 in the third set when Rochus' forehand sailed long at 30-40. Blake then held to love and broke the Belgian again to lead 5-2 after a sizzling return.
Blake has won a career-high four ATP titles this season. Only Roger Federer (nine) and Nadal (five), who lost in the first round Wednesday, have won more.
On Saturday, Blake will play Robin Soderling, who beat third-seeded Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-2. Blake won in Thailand two weeks ago to advance to sixth place in the race for a berth in the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup next month in China. Eight players qualify.
Nieminen won the opening set with relative ease but then fell behind 3-1 after dropping his serve for the first time in the tournament. He broke back to trail 3-4 and took a 6-5 lead after another break when Lopez double-faulted at 30-40.
Johansson fell behind 0-40 when trailing 6-5 in the third set but used his big serve to stay alive. In the tiebreak, Johansson missed his first four match points. Ahead 8-7, he finally won with a perfect lob.
Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press
