Blake moves into finals at Indian Wells
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. (AP) – James Blake played his way into the top 10 for the first time, and into the semifinals of the Pacific Life Open with a brisk 6-1, 6-4 victory over Igor Andreev on Friday. The 26-year-old Blake, the lone American remaining in the tournament, assured himself of moving up to at least No. 10 when the rankings come out next week. He went into the Indian Wells tournament at No. 14, highest of his career.
Maria Sharapova, “inspired” by a fan’s comment, advanced to the women’s final with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Martina Hingis.
Sharapova will face Elena Dementieva, who came back from a 2-5 deficit in the second set to take a 2-6, 7-5, 7-5 victory over Justine Henin-Hardenne.
Blake’s game was solid all-around in his one-hour, 10-minute victory over Andreev. Blake had beaten the 22-year-old Russian in a third-set tiebreaker in the final at Sydney in January to win the first of his two titles this year.
No. 26 Andreev was coming off the biggest win, a three-set victory over No. 3 Andy Roddick in the fourth round at Indian Wells.
Blake, whose other victory this year was at Las Vegas, also won his two matches in the United States’ first-round Davis Cup win over Romania. He has an 18-4 match record this season.
Asked about his impending appearance in the top 10, Blake grinned and said, “It’s pretty crazy. It means I’m playing great tennis. It’s an accomplishment I’ll look back on when I’m done with my career and say it’s another thing no one can take away from me.”
There will be three Americans in the top 10 for the first time since 2000, when Andre Agassi was No. 1, Pete Sampras No. 3 and Todd Martin No. 10. Agassi now is No. 8 and Roddick No. 3, although each lost earlier this week at Indian Wells.
During a quiet moment of Sharapova’s match after Hingis seemed to be gaining momentum in the second set, a man in the stands behind Sharapova yelled, “Martina, she’s getting tired.”
Sharapova said, “That kind of pumped me up and I hit two winners in a row. I looked back at (him) and I’m like, “I’m tired, my butt.”‘
The 18-year-old Russian with a virtually flawless and quite colorful English vocabulary, smiled and added, “So don’t mess with a truck. You’re going to become a pancake.”
She even won the fan over.
“The funny thing was, he started clapping for me after that. I think he got scared. Then when I was waving to that side (after winning), he’s like,” Sharapova said with a smile, demonstrating how the fan sheepishly waved back.
Sharapova dominated the match with powerful hard groundstrokes, hitting 29 winners to nine by the Swiss star in their third meeting, all this year.
They split their two earlier matches, with Hingis winning in the semifinals at Tokyo, and Sharapova winning in the quarterfinals at Dubai.
Sharapova made the semifinals at Indian Wells last year, but did not win a game in her loss to Lindsay Davenport, the only time she’s been shut out in a match.
The 25-year-old Hingis, back full-time on the tour for the first time since her injury-plagued 2002 season, looked out of synch against Sharapova.
“She didn’t really give me much,” Hingis said. “I didn’t get many opportunities to do much with the ball. I think I didn’t do that badly. She was just better.”
Hingis, the former No. 1 whose 40 career championship include five Grand Slam titles, was the Indian Wells champion in 1998 and also was a finalist in 2000 and 2002.
Sharapova, the 2004 Wimbledon champion, is ranked fifth and Hingis has vaulted back to No. 32 after being 349th in January.
Hingis, who beat No. 4 Davenport in the fourth round at Indian Wells, is encouraged by her play since coming back from the long layoff, when she wasn’t certain she ever would return to the tour.
“I won’t have any regrets any more. No matter what happens now, I know I’ve come a far way,” she said. “That was probably one of my biggest fears, to come back and disappoint.
“I haven’t won a tournament yet, but I think I’ve already showed that I’ve still got some game.”
Dementieva, a 24-year-old from Moscow, defeated Henin-Hardenne for only the second time in their nine career meetings. Henin-Hardenne won the tournament in 2004, then didn’t play last year ago because of an injury.