Rafael Nadal earned his first career win over American James Blake with a hardfought 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 victory last night to advance to the semifinals at the Pacific Life Open Tennis Masters Series at Indian Wells.
Awaiting Nadal will be Serb Novak Djokovic, a 7-6(5), 6-2 victor over Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka.
"Very happy for be in the semifinal," said Nadal who was 0-3 vs. Blake entering the match. "Anyway, right now I have very good tournament, the first Masters Series of the year in hard court for play the semifinal is very good result, and for sure I going to try my best for play against Djokovic on Saturday. So going to be a very tough match, I know."
Today the remaining semifinal will be determed as top seed Roger Federer meets Tommy Haas and David Nalbandian faces Mardy Fish in top half quarterfinal play.
Federer takes an 8-2 lifetime record (winning the last seven) against Haas, who is appearing in the quarterfinals for the second straight year. Fish won the only previous meeting against Nalbandian nearly five years ago. Haas and Fish have both defeated three seeds en route to the quarterfinals.
Nalbandian is trying to become the first player (since 1990) to win three consecutive ATP Masters Series tournaments. The 26-year-old Argentine is unbeaten in his last 15 ATP Masters Series matches going back to Madrid and Paris wins at the end of 2007.
The top three match wins leaders on this year’s ATP circuit are still remaining in the tournament, including the No. 2 (Nadal) and 3 (Djokovic) ranked players.
In the U.S., Fox Sports Net will air coverage this afternoon, check your local listings. Live streaming from four courts is available online by clicking the banner below:
