THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Andy Roddick struggled and James Blake made it look easy as they advanced to the quarter-finals at the SAP Open on Thursday.
Roddick had his hands full as he defeated Ernests Gulbis 6-3, 7-6 (3). Last year, Gulbis gave Roddick trouble at the U.S. Open when he took the first set before the American rallied to win the next three to take the match.
"I guess I started off pretty well," said Roddick. "But I thought he started serving really well in the second set."
The Latvian didn't seem flustered by the hard-serving defending champion. Roddick is trying to win the tournament for a record fourth time.
Roddick used serves clocked at 241, 236, and 228 km/h to easily win the first set. But Gulbis almost turned the tables on Roddick in the second set, matching him point for point until the losing the tiebreaker.
Although Gulbis had six double faults, he constantly flustered Roddick with his strong serves and return game. At one point after being aced, Roddick tossed his racket to the side in disbelief.
Roddick's unforced errors gave Gulbis the opportunity he needed to challenge.
It was a little frustrating to not be able to get into a rhythm at all," said Roddick. "And then he started hitting first serves for second serves. If he's making it there isn't much I can do. A lot of the time he plays pretty high-risk so you are kind of at his mercy."
Blake beat Florent Serra 6-4, 6-3 to advance to the quarter-finals of a tournament he's never won. However, this is the fourth time he's reached the quarter-finals. The third-seeded Blake last reached the semifinals in the tournament in 2003.
"I thought I played really well again," said Blake. "I served well. It was a slightly different matchup; he's not going to hit so many cold winners off returns but he will put a lot of balls into play, and I got a lot balls out of his reach."
After the match, Blake exchanged words with the Frenchman because of some on-court antics. "He's was doing some stuff we used to do in juniors. He's too good for that. He's a very good player and I have a lot of respect for his game.
"He was moving when I was looking at him or when I'm tossing the ball. These are things I think don't really have a place on the pro tour."
Blake will face 21-year-old Sam Querrey in the quarters. Blake is 3-1 against Querrey.
The sixth-seeded Querrey knocked off Denis Gremelmayr 6-3, 6-2 to advance. Earlier this year, he lost in the finals of the Auckland Open to Juan del Potro.
"I played really well," said Querrey. "The first five games were close. We were at 2-2 and I came back and held there.
"After I won the first set and broke the first game of the second set I had all the momentum. I looked at my serving percentage it was in the 70s. You aren't going to lose many matches if you are serving that well."
Querrey had 12 aces in the match to run his total to 28 for the first two rounds.
No. 2 seed del Potro made short work of Kei Nishikori 6-2, 6-2 to make it the quarter-finals.
Former finalist Mardy Fish reached his first quarter-finals since the U.S. Open last September when he struggled past John Isner 6-2, 6-7 (4), 7-5. Fifth-seeded Fish hit 13 aces to Isner's 15. Fish will face del Potro in his next match.
Also, qualifier Todd Widom made it to his first ATP quarter-finals when he overcame Taylor Dent 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-2 in another all American match
Widom hadn't won on the tour since 2006 until this week and was ranked 270th. He earned a match with fourth-seeded Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic.
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