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Blake, Verdasco Orchestrate Upsets at ATP New Haven

Spain's Fernando Verdasco (d. (2) Gonzalez 7-6 in the third) and American wildcard James Blake (d. (6) Haas from a set down) scored upsets Thursday at the ATP stop in New Haven to advance into the quarterfinals.

"Yeah, he's a very big match, because I lost against him in Monte Carlo this year first round," Verdasco said of defeating the pounding Chilean. "It was clay, but for me it's very important, it's the same, you know, the whether it's clay or hard court, to have more confidence than I have now it's good, to win against him. He is a very tough player, on all the courts, for me it's very important to win this match."

Blake rebounded from a 6-1 beating by Haas in the first set.

"That first set, he steamrolled me," Blake said. "He was hitting the lines. He wasn't missing anything. But I tried not to get too down. I just looked for a little chink in the armor. In the second set, I tried to execute a little better, take it too him because defense was not doing it."

Seeds into the quarters Thursday were (3) Dave Ferrer (d. (15) Srichaphan), (4) Tommy Robredo (d. Koubek), and (5) Feliciano Lopez (d. (12) Spadea from a set down).

"I just wasn't making the shots," said Spadea, who watched 12 aces fly by during the encounter. "My return was off and that was the bottom line. You make him hit a couple more shots and that's the game. I couldn't even get the ball in play. So a couple of them were his aces; a couple of them were my mistakes. That's life when you are not focused and you are not grooved that extra amount, I guess."

Un-seeds into the quarters were Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela (d. Santoro), and Russian Igor Andreev (d. Kohlschreiber).

Scheduled for Friday are (4) Robredo vs. Hanescu, Juan Ignacio "The Spitting Snake" Chela vs. (WC) Blake, (5) Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez vs. Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco in an all-Spanish, and Andreev vs. (3) Ferrer.

15-Year-Glatch Keeps Winning at WTA Forest Hills

15-year-old phenom Alexa Glatch continued her break-out week Thursday at the WTA stop in Forest Hills, reaching the semifinals in only her second WTA event with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Slovak Martina Sucha.

Also into the semis were Indian media darling and No. 3 seed Sania Mirza (d. Vinci), and Czechs Iveta Benesova (d. Ondraskova) and Lucie Safarova (d. Ant. Serra Zanetti).

Friday' semifinals line up is Benesova vs. Safarova (Safarova leads career meetings 1-0), and Glatch vs. Mirza (first meeting).

Davenport, Mauresmo Advance Toward Meeting at WTA New Haven

Top-seeded Lindsay Davenport (d. Hantuchova) and No. 2 Amelie Mauresmo (d. Groenefeld) both advanced in straight sets Thursday at the WTA stop in New Haven, both now one match away from a meeting in the final.

"I think it would be wrong of me to expect that I can come out after seven or eight weeks and be perfect," said Davenport, getting some match play under her belt after a long layoff due to a back injury. "So there's always going to be aspects of my game that need to be worked on and stuff that you can really only get from playing matches. And that's like hitting a good serve and getting ready for the ball to come back."

Also into the semis were two unseeded players in Russian Anna Chakvetadze (d. Zheng), and Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues (d. (4) Dementieva).

"It was difficult for me to play at ten o'clock," Dementieva said. "But I have to say she was playing unbelievably well today. I was always down during the match. She didn't give me any easy points so I was fighting for every single ball."

Friday's schedule in New Haven is Medina Garrigues vs. Mauresmo, and Davenport vs. Chakvetadze.

With a win Friday, Davenport will re-take the No. 1 ranking from Maria Sharapova.

"Didn't know that. Not important," Davenport said. "We'll settle it once and for all at the end of the year."