Top
Seed Blake and Defending Champion Haas, advance to the
Quarterfinals
Delray
Beach, FL (Febuary
1,
2007)—Top
seed James Blake and defending champion No. 2 seed Tommy Haas highlighted the group of six players who made it to the quarterfinals of the
Delray Beach International Tennis Championships Thursday.
All six won their matches, except for No. 3 seed and 2005 ITC champion Xavier
Malisse, who reached the quarterfinals with the best winning percentage for
sets among his round robin group.
Others who advanced were No. 4 seed Benjamin Becker, No. 8 seed Vince
Spadea and Italy’s Davide Sanguinetti, the champion here in 2002.
des
The American Blake, 27, downed compatriot Scoville Jenkins 6-1, 6-3. Blake broke
Jenkins four times and hasn’t yet faced a break point on his own serve. The
older American won 59 points to only 35 for Jenkins. The victory was Blake’s
200th, against 128 losses.
“That makes me feel a little old, but it’s a good, successful feeling,” Blake
said. “It means there are a few I have forgotten. I would never have expected
that after my first win in 1999 over an injured Mal Washington, and then my next
one came about two years later against Christophe Rochus.”
Blake, who lives in Wesley Chapel, FL, across the state from Delray Beach,
reached a career-best ATP Ranking of No. 4 in November and is now No. 6. He won
five titles last year, tying him for second with Rafael Nadal and Nikolay
Davydenko behind Roger Federer with 12.
He made it to the fourth round of the Australian Open this month (l. to
Gonzalez) after defending his title in Sydney (d. Moya) and is 9-1 so far this year. Blake has a career record of 3-2 in this event.
In the quarterfinals, Blake faces No. 5 seed Florian Mayer of Germany. The
American won their only previous match, a 6-1, 6-2, 6-0 drubbing in the first
round of the Australian Open two years ago. “I have fond memories of playing him that I hope won’t change after tomorrow,”
Blake said.
The German Haas, 28, beat American upstart Sam Querrey 6-4, 7-5.
“I’m feeling better,” said Haas, who lost in the semifinals of the Australian
Open Friday night Melbourne time to Fernando Gonzalez. . “I finished playing
late last night, but got a good night’s sleep.”
The conditions on the court were blustery. “It was quite windy today and tough
to prepare,” Haas said. “But you just have to adjust when you’re out there. You
try to play the best you can. Sometimes it looks ugly, but that’s the way it is
– Mother Nature.”
Haas beat Malisse in the final in his debut here last year and is now 7-0 for
his career in Delray. Haas has a record of 7-1 so far this year, and his
Australian Open performance lifted his ATP Ranking to No. 9, his first time in
the top 10 since October 2002. He reached the No. 2 ranking in May 2002
After missing nearly all of 2003 with a shoulder injury, Haas said he gave
himself the goal of returning to the top 10. “Now that it has happened, I’m
proud,” he said.
“From Friday night late against Gonzalez, I was happy to make the semifinals,
but frustrated that the guy played better, so that he was going to a Grand Slam
final, which would have been great. The next day, I had to go to Florida. I was
already worried about Delray Beach. So it can’t really sink in. I will
appreciate it more when I’m done with tennis.”
Next up for Haas in the quarterfinals is Spadea, who grew up in nearby Boca
Raton. Their tussle will be a re-match of last year’s semifinal, won by Haas.
“He has been around for a long time,” Haas said of Spadea. “He likes to play
here, so it won’t be an easy match. Hopefully I’ll get eight hours sleep
tonight, so that I feel good tomorrow.”
Haas has a 7-1 career ATP edge over Spadea, with Spadea’s only victory coming on
a hard court at San Jose in 2004.
In
a battle of local boys Thursday, Spadea, 32, defeated 19-year-old Ryan Sweeting,
a resident of nearby Fort Lauderdale, 7-5, 6-4. Spadea broke Sweeting twice and
the youngster won only 39 percent of his second-serve points (11/28).
“It was a solid match until the end,” Spadea said. “I won the big points. I was
quick on my feet today, attacking short balls and waiting to capitalize on my
chances. Forget about ‘American Idol’, I want to win the Delray title,” he
rapped.
Spadea improved his career record in this event to 16-9 with Thursday’s win. He
is trying to reach the semifinals for his fourth straight year. He was runner-up
here in 2004 to Ricardo Mello.
Malisse, 26, advanced to the quarterfinals despite losing to Germany’s Rainer
Schuettler 6-7(4), 7-6(1), 6-3. “I played badly today,” Malisse said. “It was
tough with the wind. Hopefully I’ll play better tomorrow. It’s a new match.”
In the quarterfinals, the Belgian faces No. 7 seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez whom
he beat in the semifinals here last year. That was the duo’s only prior meeting.
“Beating him last year was a confidence booster that will hopefully get the
level of my game up,” Malisse said.
The Belgian, who lives in Sarasota, across the state of Florida from Delray
Beach, now has a career mark of 21-7 at the ITC. Malisse is 6-2 so far this
year, winning the second title of his career last month at Chennai (d. Koubek).
The German Becker (no relation to Boris) ousted Boca Raton resident and
University of Florida freshman Jesse Levine 6-3, 6-3.
Levine, an amateur and qualifier, will now return to college, where he plays No.
1 on the Gators tennis team. “I came here to get into the qualies, and I’m very
happy with the results,” Levine said. “Now it’s back to school.”
The 25-year-old Becker, who won the NCAA singles title himself in 2004 (d.
Michael Kogan of Tulane), broke Levine three times and while Levine won only 32
percent of his second-serve points (9/28).
With the win, Becker improved his 2007 record to 3-4 and his career ATP record
to 12-12. He is playing in Delray Beach for the first time. His career highlight
so far was ending Andre Agassi’s career with a four-set win in the third round
of the US Open last September.
"This is only the second time in my career I've reached a quarterfinal," said
Becker, who reached the semifinals in Tokyo last year. "So that's exciting for
me, and I'm looking forward to playing tomorrow."
In the
quarterfinals, Becker will face Sanguinetti for the first time. The Italian, 34,
beat American Amer Delic 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 and now has a career mark of 12-2 at this
event. Including his elimination match Monday, Sanguinetti already has three
wins this week and is 5-1 on the year. He last played here in 2002, when he won
the crown over Andy Roddick.
In doubles action Thursday, top seeds Jeff Coetzee of South Africa and Rogier
Wassen of the Netherlands advanced to the semifinals with a 6-3, 7-5 win over
Sanguinetti of Italy and Spadea. Coetzee and Wassen are 9-2 on the year,
capturing the crown at Auckland last month (d. Aspelin-Haggard).
In the semifinals, Coetzee and Wassen will play James Auckland of Britain and
Stephen Huss of Australia. Auckland and Huss beat Jan-Michael Gambill of the
U.S. and Rainer Schuettler of Germany 7-5, 6-7(2), 17-15 (Match Tiebreak) in the
quarterfinals Thursday night.
Also Thursday, Becker and Russia’s Igor Kunitsyn beat Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese
Taipei and Kristian Pless of Denmark 6-7(5), 6-3, 10-8 in the first round.
Ticket packages to the 2007 event are now on sale and can be
purchased by calling 561-330-6000. The Reserved Series
package for all tournament sessions is $250 while the
Weekender package—including the quarterfinals, semifinals
and finals—is $200. Box seat packages range from $980 for
two seats to $2,200 for four seats.
For more
information on the 15th annual tournament and its ancillary
events, visit www.YellowTennisBall.com.
