Match report

James Blake © Tennistalk.com
Internazionali BNL d Italia
Quarter final
5/9/08 1 2 3 Tot
us  James Blake 7 7 6 5 1 1
ch  Stanislas Wawrinka 6 5 7 7 6 2
Stanislas Wawrinka © Tennistalk.com

  • Stanislas Wawrinka staves off James Blake

    5/10/08 4:38 AM | Cheryl Murray
    Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka overcame injury and missed opportunity to take out James Blake in three.

    Stanislas Wawrinka can thank the breaking down of James Blake's game for this quarterfinal win. Though it had a close scoreline and was unpredictable (at least until the third set), the match played out more as a contest of who was going to lose the match rather than who would win it. And in keeping with the theme of Rome, it had the requisite medical time out.

    Wawrinka has the more effective clay court game and was playing more consistently going into the match. He went up an early break in the first set, but he was unable to hold onto the lead. Blake broke back in game seven to level the set. Both men held serve to force a tie break, where Blake took the set at 7-5 in the tiebreak.

    The second set played out similarly to the first. Wawrinka broke Blake straight away to go up 2-0, but was broken right back again. Another shaky service game from Blake at 4-3 gave Wawrinka a chance to serve for the set. At 40-30, James Blake saved the first set point in the second. Wawrinka had three more chances to take the set for 6-3, and missed each opportunity, finally handing the break back to Blake. Wawrinka was able to hold serve for 6-6, despite taking a medical time-out for a problem with his back.

    Blake played a terrible tie break, as he sprayed errors left, right and center to give Wawrinka three more set points. Blake saved another two set points, before Wawrinka finally managed to take the set on his seventh opportunity to do so. Perhaps the disappointment of losing such a close second set finally got inside the American's head, because his game disintegrated in the third set completely. He managed to hold just one time and to add insult to injury, he did not even force Wawrinka to serve the match out. Wawrinka will take on Andy Roddick in his first Masters event semi-final.

  • Thumbs up

    It was nice to see Stanislas Wawrkina make his first Masters-Series semifinal.

  • Thumbs down

    James Blake practically handed the match to Wawrinka in the third.

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