MADRID, Spain -- Seventh-ranked James Blake lost to Kristof Vliegen 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (5) Wednesday in the second round of the Madrid Masters on a day when several high seeds fell.
Third-ranked Ivan Ljubicic and No. 5 Nikolay Davydenko -- winners on the ATP Tour last week along with Blake -- also lost their
second-round matches. Ninth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis, 2003 winner
Juan Carlos Ferrero and No. 12 seed Mario Ancic also failed to
advance. Second-ranked Rafael Nadal won easily in his first match of the tournament.
Blake, who had won his last two tournaments, squandered 3-1 and 6-5 leads in the final set in the loss to Vliegen and saw his 14-match winning streak snapped. He's winless in three visits to the Madrid
Masters.
"In the third set I had my chances, and when you have your
chances you've got to take advantage," Blake said. "When you're
serving at 6-5, you really should win the match. It's not the way
you want to go out."
Vliegen hit 26 of his 41 winners in the final set.
Defending Madrid Masters champion Nadal didn't drop a serve while hitting 15 winners off
American qualifier Mardy Fish's second serve in a 6-4, 6-2 victory.
Nadal saved his best for last, breaking Fish in the
penultimate game with a no-look crosscourt forehand which left the
capacity crowd in disbelief.
"Winning in Spain is always something special for me," Nadal
said. "It is a very special sensation."
Ljubicic, last year's runner-up, was undone by Andy Murray 6-4,
3-6, 6-3, and Davydenko fell to Joachim Johansson 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3.
The 2004 champion, Marat Safin, ousted Baghdatis 6-4, 6-3, and
the 16th-seeded Ferrero lost to Robin Soderling of Sweden 6-3, 6-2.
Murray, a British teenager who is one of only two players to
beat Roger Federer this year, broke Ljubicic for the second time in
the final set to lead 5-3 before winning with his eighth ace.
Safin, coming off his first final of the year on Sunday in
Moscow, broke Baghdatis three times. The Cypriot didn't help his
cause by serving up seven double faults among his 24 unforced
errors.
Sodering's win over Ferrero lined him up a third-round match
against top-ranked Federer on Thursday, and Robby Ginepri of the
United States beat Ancic 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5).
Also, No. 10 Fernando Gonzalez converted his only break point in
the final set to beat Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand 7-5, 6-7 (5),
6-4, No. 11 Tomas Berdych beat Agustin Calleri of Argentina 7-6
(2), 6-3, No. 13 Tommy Haas defeated Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia
6-3, 7-6 (6), and Novak Djokovic of Serbia beat Richard Gasquet of
France 7-6 (2), 1-6, 6-1.
In the last 16 on Thursday, Nadal plays Haas, sixth-seeded Andy
Roddick faces Berdych, and wild card Tim Henman takes on
fourth-seeded David Nalbandian.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.