Black Tennis Pros

MIAMI, Fla. (www.sonyericssonopen.com) – The 2011 Sony Ericsson Open announced its wildcard entries and this year it features former World No. 4 James Blake and former World No. 1 Dinara Safina. A total of five wildcard slots were granted to the men’s draw and also include Jack Sock, Ryan Harrison, Milos Raonic, and Bernard Tomic. While six were given on the women’s side which feature Heather Watson, Sorana Cirstea, Sabine Lisicki, Madison Keys, and Coco Vandeweghe.

Women’s main draw begins on Tuesday, March 22, while the men’s main draw kicks off the following day on Wednesday, March 23. The qualifying rounds will be held Monday and Tuesday, March 21 and 22.

Tickets to the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open are on sale now and can be purchased by phone (305-442-3367) or via internet at www.sonyericssonopen.com. An electrifying two weeks of tennis conclude with the women’s final on Saturday, April 2 and the men’s final on Sunday, April 3.

Blake will make his return to Miami, hoping to improve on his career-best quarterfinal showings in 2006 and 2008. Safina made her last appearance on the purple courts in 2009 as the No. 2 seeded player advancing to the third round. She recorded her career-best finish in 2008 when she advanced to the quarterfinals.

Blake, always a fan favorite, earned his first ATP win in 2002 becoming the fourth African American to win an ATP title in the Open Era. In 2005, Blake grabbed the national spotlight at the U.S. Open when he played a thrilling five-set match in the quarter finals against his idol, Andre Agassi. From there, Blake’s career blossomed tremendously as he reached his career-high of No. 4 in the world in 2006 becoming the first African American to crack the top-10 since his role model, Arthur Ashe.

Safina made her professional debut in 2002. The Russian star recorded a breakout season in 2008 winning a career-best four singles titles. In 2008, she was awarded the WTA Most Improved Player, and was the first player in history to defeat three reigning World No. 1s in the same season (Justine Henin, Maria Sharapova, and Jelena Jankovic). Safina reached a career-high rank of No. 1 in the world in 2009, and joined her brother Marat Safin as the first brother-sister combo to both achieve World No. 1 rankings.

In addition to Blake and Safina the tournament wildcards include many of the Tour’s next generation of tennis stars.

Men’s Main Draw Wildcards
James Blake
Jack Sock
Ryan Harrison
Milos Raonic
Bernard Tomic

Men’s Qualifying Wildcards
Gastao Elias
Filip Krajinovic

Women’s Main Draw Wildcards
Dinara Safina
Heather Watson
Madison Keys
Sabine Lisicki
Coco Vandeweghe
Sorana Cirstea

Women’s Qualifying Draw Wildcards
Michelle Larcher de Brito
Lauren Davis
Carina Witthoeft
Aleksandra Wozniak
Beatrice Capra
Sloane Stevens

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MIAMI (Reuters) - World number one Serena Williams has pulled out of next week's Sony Ericsson Open due to a knee injury, organizers said on Friday.

The American's withdrawal is another blow to the tournament after former Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova and world number two Dinara Safina had already pulled out.

Williams has won the Key Biscayne event five times.

Venus Williams and Svetlana Kuznetsova headline the women's field while the men's top three -- Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal are joined by American Andy Roddick and defending champion Andy Murray.

The men's competition will be without fifth-ranked Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina due to a wrist injury.

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SYDNEY — Serena Williams stormed into the semi-finals of the Sydney International on Wednesday, cranking up the heat on her opponents ahead of next week's Australian Open.

The American world number one tossed aside Russian Vera Dushevina 6-2, 6-2, making it just seven games she has dropped on her way to the last four of the Sydney tournament.

Williams, strong favourite to lift her fifth Australian Open crown and her 12th Grand Slam, takes on world number 27 Aravane Rezai of France in Thursday's semi-finals.


Rezai won her third match of the tournament against Italian Flavia Pennetta, 6-3, 6-0 on Wednesday.

In the bottom half of the draw, Belarus sixth seed Victoria Azarenka is through to the semi-finals after beating Slovak Dominika Cibulkova 6-2, 7-5, while defending champion Elena Dementieva was due to face world number two Dinara Safina later Wednesday.

"I definitely enjoy playing in the heat," Williams said of steamy Melbourne, home to the Open. "I usually enjoy playing in the heat. I live in Florida, so it's all about hot weather there.

"So I think maybe that's one of the reasons why I do so well down here.

"The past couple of times I won it's been extremely hot, so I expect the same temperatures again."

Asked during her post-match press conference how close she was to her best form, Williams said: "I always try to get there usually around the semi-finals and finals of the Grand Slams.

"I'm just doing the best that I can now to get there. Hopefully I have a long way to go, which I think is always good."

Williams said she was expecting her toughest match of the week against Rezai.

"I haven't played her, but I know her game," she said. "I played her in doubles and (sister) Venus has played her before.

"She's a good player and she's really young. She has a lot of drive. I think she can be really good. It'll definitely be my toughest match yet."

Azarenka had to again work hard to stay alive in the tournament, taking two hours 20 minutes to extinguish the challenge of the 24th-ranked Cibulkova.

So far Azarenka has been taken to three sets in all her three matches at the tournament.

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DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Serena Williams bested big sister Venus again Sunday, winning 6-2, 7-6 (4) in the season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships final.


Serena broke twice in the first set and lost just seven points on serve in her last match of the year. She looked sharper than Venus in every facet of a match that featured few long rallies and little of the spectacular tennis the two have provided in some of their previous meetings.

Serena sealed the match with a crosscourt forehand winner, and celebrated calmly with a simple fist pump before hugging her sister at the net.

"It feels great," said Serena, who also won the WTA Tour's season-ending event in 2001. "I totally didn't expect to come here and win."

It was Serena's fourth straight win over her sister. She also beat Venus in the round-robin stage of the Doha tournament, the Wimbledon final and the semifinals in Miami this year. She leads their head-to-head record 13-10.

"Playing a final against Venus is really tough," Serena said. "Even though she wasn't really feeling great, she kept hitting every ball back."

Serena earned $1.55 million for the win after finishing the event undefeated. She also clinched the year-end No. 1 ranking earlier this week after Dinara Safina of Russia pulled out injured in her first match.

The tournament featured the eight top-ranked women in the world divided into two groups, with the semifinalsts decided by a round-robin stage.

Venus lost two of her three round-robin matches but still advanced. The defending champion looked tired after rallying for a three-set win over Jelena Jankovic on Saturday, and each of her other group matches went three sets.

She played with her left knee strapped while Serena had strapping on her left thigh.

"It was the end of the season, so I have no complaints," Venus said about her fitness level. "You have to show up and play no matter what. So that had nothing to do with it."

Serena, who advanced after U.S. Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki retired injured in the semifinals, held five of her last seven service games at love and lost just one point in each of the other two.

It was her third tournament win of the season after Wimbledon and the Australian Open.

"I haven't won a tournament that wasn't a Grand Slam in a while, so that was even more exciting," she said. "My losing streak in (other) tournaments in over."

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In what was one of the strangest retirements from a match that I've ever witnessed, on Wednesday at the Sony Ericsson Championships during a second round match between Russian Dinara Safina and Serbian Jelena Jankovic, a sobbing and clearly overwhelmed Dinara Safina simply began crying, walked over to the official, retired, shook her opponents hand and made her way off court. It was heart wrenching to see.

We were later informed that she had been struggling with a back injury for three months and had been taking cortisone injections.

Safina said she will be sidelined for at least six weeks and is struggling to compete in the opening grand slam of 2010 in Australia.

"My body just gave up. I did everything possible to play. I went to have a cortisone injection, but I couldn't handle the pain anymore," Safina told reporters.

Hopefully she will have a speedy recovery.

On the flip side, the woman that caused all kind of ruckus earlier this year when she stated "we all know who the real number one is, will indeed be the real world number 1, again, come Monday, November 2.

After playing a very tight match against big sister Venus, and then being asked if she knew that she would regain the number one ranking Serena said," It's a great feeling to be world number one, but I feel really sorry for Dinara. She's a great player and never gives up."

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Tokyo (AP) -- Defending champion Dinara Safina and Venus Williams were knocked out of the second round by qualifiers at the Toray Pan Pacific Open on Monday.

Chang Kai-chen, an 18-year-old from Taiwan, upset the top-ranked Safina 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-5. Russian teenager Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova edged Williams 7-6 (6), 7-5 to reach the third round.

Safina was serving for the match in the third set when she double-faulted to give up a break. Chang, ranked 132nd and playing only the fourth time in a WTA main draw, held her serve and broke Safina again for victory.

“The double-fault didn't affect me that much,” Safina said. “Whether it's a double-fault or a mistake it's the same. It's just the way I played at 5-4. It wasn't the right game, I didn't use my first serve the whole game.”

A dejected Williams made a hasty exit from Ariake Colosseum, saying only she was looking forward to her next match in Beijing.

Williams took a 3-0 lead in the first set but the 18-year-old Pavlyuchenkova fought back, breaking Williams to tie it 5-5 before holding serve and winning the tiebreak.

Pavlyuchenkova hit a forehand down the line to go up 6-5 in the second set. She had a triple-match point in the 12th game and won when Williams' return was long.

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TOKYO, Japan - Nine of the world's Top 10 players will be in Tokyo this week for the Toray Pan Pacific Open, a $2,000,000 Premier-level tournament held on the outdoor hardcourts of the Ariake Colosseum.

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TOKYO (Reuters) -- World No. 2 Serena Williams has pulled out of next week's Pan Pacific Open with knee and toe injuries, organizers said on Thursday.

The Australian Open and Wimbledon champion has not played a singles match since her rant at a lineswoman in her semifinal loss to Belgian Kim Clijsters at the U.S. Open earlier this month.

The rest of the women's world top 10, including Serena's older sister Venus, is among the field at the $2 million event.

World No. 1 Dinara Safina, who was not on the initial entry list, has opted to compete in Tokyo in a bid to retain the Pan Pacific crown she won last year.

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LONDON (AFP) — Venus Williams angrily hit back at suggestions that her 6-1, 6-0 Wimbledon semi-final demolition of world number one Dinara Safina was an embarrassment to women's tennis.

Venus, the five-time Wimbledon champion, took just 51 minutes to beat her Russian opponent in the most one-sided women's semi-final here in 40 years.

The result piled more pressure on both Safina, who has yet to win a Grand Slam title, and the rankings system which sees Venus and sister Serena at three and two in the world respectively despite winning 17 majors between them.

'Are you trying to be down on women's tennis?', she snapped at a journalist who said that the Centre Court mis-match, which followed sister Serena's marathon win over Elena Dementieva, was embarrassing to the women's game.

"I think women's tennis is fantastic. I would never be down on it. I happen to have enormous respect for Dinara.

"I'm not the number one seed so I shouldn't be expected to win but I have more experience playing on grass courts so that helped me."

Safina defended her world number one status, claiming her place on top of the rankings is reward for her consistency and success at all tournaments throughout the year and not just the four Grand Slams.

The 22-year-old Russian, who will remain on top next week when the new rankings are released, has finished runner-up at the last two French Opens as well as the Australian Open this year.

"I have reached the semi-finals at least at the last four Grand Slams," said the Russian.

"Venus and Serena didn't make the semi-finals at the French Open. The ranking is all year, tournament by tournament.

"I won in Rome and Madrid this year. I have been very consistent. The rankings are not just the result of the Grand Slam events."

Safina committed 16 unforced errors to Venus's one on Thursday and was out-aced 5-0.

But she insists that she can do better if she can get more experience on grass courts.

"She is just too good on grass," said Safina. "This is not my favourite surface. It's disappointing to finish in less than one hour and win only one game.

"She gave me a good lesson today but we only play two tournaments a year on grass. I tried to go for my shots and I like to build points. She can hit winners straightaway."

Serena, who saved a match point before booking her place in Saturday's final, said she had sympathy with Safina.

"Venus is not the easiest opponent on grass and she was playing really well," said Serena.

"Dinara is ranked No. 1 in the world. She's worked really hard to get there. She's been really consistent. I don't think anyone should take that away from her."

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What can you say? What is there to be said?

Americans Venus and Serena Williams epitomize the ability to persevere. These ladies are just something else!

Up first today Serena had a literal battle of wills against Russian Elena Dementieva. Of course if you're going will power to will power against Serena, you're pretty much going to lose. Nonetheless, Dementieva came to play. Dementieva served like I have never seen her serve before. We all know that she has one hell of a fierce ground game, and that alone has given Serena headaches previously, but to add a good service game to that presents a different equation.

In a toe-to-toe battle in which Serena had to save a match point, the ladies put on a war of a ground game that could not have been scripted... with Dementieva actually having the upper hand for a large part of the three-set match.

Yet it had to end, and after 2 hours and 48 minutes Serena finally edged Dementieva out 6⁴-7⁷, 7-5, 8-6.

At the end Serena said, “Elena played so well. We gave the crowd a wonderful match.”

“The more we play, the better it gets. When we play our match on Saturday, you know, it’s for everything. This is what we dreamed of when we were growing up in Compton 20-something years ago. So, you know, this is what we worked for, and this is what we want. Like I wanted her to win today, and she wanted me to win today. It’s all come down to this.”

And Then Came Venus

Not so much drama between Venus and Russian Dinara Safina... more like pure ugliness. Venus put her foot on the gas and did not stop until she reached the finish line. The match looked like Venus was on automatic pilot.

In 51 minutes Venus just demolished Safina 6-1, 6-0.

Afterwards Venus said, “I was out there and really able to stay focused; I have so much experience on this court.”

To say the least...

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For a recent change of pace, American super sisters Venus and Serena Williams are in separate halves of the draw at the 2009 French Open with No. 3 seed Venus on a path to meet Russian Dinara Safina in the semi-finals.

Younger sister Serena, the tournament's No. 2 seed, has the more clay-specialist half of the draw, with the likes of 14^th seed Flavia Pennetta due to face her in the Round of 16 and 7^th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarters.

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A wonderfully resurgent James Blake has found his footing and a seemingly new attitude - actually his old one - in Estoril, Portugal at the Estoril Open. Blake knocked Frenchman Florent Serra out of the tournament 6-4, 6-1.

With very little fanfare after quite a few recent early round loses, Blake has moved through this tournament as if previous court failings did not exist. It can't be easy to suffer so many loses and maintain the fortitude that originally took him to the top ten.

Whatever has or has not occurred, Blake is an exciting player that lifts the heat level of any tournament when he plays like he has this week. It is a pleasure to see.

This is a high for Blake, getting past the quarterfinal round on European clay. This effort has granted him a meeting with Russian Nikolay Davydenko whom Blake has a winning record against.

Post match Blake said, "This was a good match but I hope to continue that. Davydenko is a great player and he's especially dangerous on clay. But I feel I'm ready for this match."

"My game has gotten better and better all week and I'm really dictating like I want to on court."

In his interview Davydenko said, "Physically I'm not as strong as I can be but mentally I'm very tough. I've never had such a long time away from tennis in my career.

"But since I've come back I've been playing well. Everything's not about tennis anymore for me, I have family and other interests.

"Now, I hardly think about my matches, I just go out and play relaxed. For me, it doesn't matter how you are playing, it's your mental state. It's always in your head."

These two gentlemen set up the makings of what could be a tremendous match, I hope it turns out that way.

American Venus Williams and Russian Dinara Safina

In Rome at the Internazionali BNL D'Italia, American Venus Williams successfully toiled her way to the semifinals where she was defeated today by Russian Dinara Safina 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-4.

Throughout this tournament Venus has shown the tough metal that we have come to know her for over the years. While it wasn't sufficient to pull out the championship in Rome, it should signal that she will be a tough competitor as the clay court season further heats up.

Post match Venus said, "She played well, continued to fight for every point. That's what you have to do on this surface," she said. "I congratulate her on playing good tennis the whole match."

Another aspect of Venus that we've come to know and expect - dignity.

Photos by:
Francisco Leong/AFP/Getty Images (James Blake)
Ryan Pierse/Getty Images (Venus Williams)

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After today's victory over Radwanska, Venus Williams said in an interview with Ubaldo Scanagatta's Tennis (UBI Tennis) that she deals with FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).

Q. You had a comfortable win today. How do you assess your performance, also comparing to previous matches which were longer and tougher?
VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah, you know, it's just, like I said when I came the other day, it's just important to play a lot points and to hit a lot of balls and to find a rhythm.

Of course, I'm still playing my aggressive game, but I'm also patient, more patient than the other matches. Just learning from my mistakes. You know, talk to my coaches after, and then trying to apply after the match, you know, apply it in the next match.

So, you know, when I play a match and it's not exactly how I want it, I stop getting crazy about it and realize I know how to play and I just have to play, try the next time to play better.
So that's what I'm doing.

Q. The problem was the clay? It was to move well on clay? It was light? Or it was because it was cold? Which was it?
VENUS WILLIAMS: Yesterday?

Q. Yesterday.
VENUS WILLIAMS: You know, I think I'm moving better every match. You know, it helps when you feel good physically. I really am feeling good.

You know, I've had time to think about mistakes I made and try to correct them.

Q. The mistake was how you was moving?
VENUS WILLIAMS: Because I was moving better today.

Q. But the biggest mistake was?
VENUS WILLIAMS: There were a lot of mistakes. You know, my toss on my serve; footwork; rushing; a lot of things.
So just try to play one shot at a time, especially for an aggressive player like me, because I can mistake a lot happen. It's not always necessary to make so much happen. Just slowing down. It's important to slow down.

Q. How much is difficult to don't be too much upset about yourself when you're not able to play good?
VENUS WILLIAMS: You know, I've always been like a pretty calm player, so for me naturally usually I don't get too upset.

Sometimes I do because I expect a lot from myself, but I try to leave the past in the past. Not always easy, but I try to.

Q. Now you can feel very confident for tomorrow?
VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah. Obviously to have a great match in the quarterfinals and going into the semifinals, I mean, do feel great about tomorrow. So I'll do more of the same thing as today. Just really keep trying to be better and keep trying to come in and really work on my game.
Really just, you know, swing freely, just to feel free on the court.

Q. In the past you beat Dinara in two matches, but on another surface. Do you think tomorrow will change anything on the clay?
VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah, it's always great to play players on different surfaces and use different strategies. So, you know, like I said, tomorrow I'll be controlling on my side of the court and playing my shots.

Whoever is across the net, for me, it's not about that. It's about really like getting my game together at this point.

Q. What of those elements that you were talking about earlier, being aggressive and also patient, going into a match with a player like Safina, will you go in playing very aggressively? Will be you patient at first?
VENUS WILLIAMS: I play the ball. So the ball lands short, I come in. If the ball goes deep, I move back. So doesn't matter who I play, I'm going to play the ball.
If the ball says play aggressive, I play aggressive.

Q. You and Kuznetsova maybe have the same attitude. Does not depends about your opponent, depends most of what is in your mind, if you are in the right mood or not. Do you an agree that Kuznetsova is the biggest opponent you can have in general after Serena?
VENUS WILLIAMS: I don't think so much about my opponents. I really never thought about her like that, to be honest. I mean, for this tournament, I mean, we could meet in the final if we can play well tomorrow. That would be great.

I mean, I don't have like have like moods and stuff. I don't know what she has. She never told me. (Laughter.) So, yeah.

Q. How did you assess your clay court preparation at this point? Are you at the point where you want it to be?
VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah. Who is where they want to be? No one. So I can always can ask for more. What's happening now is okay, so it's important sometimes not to ask for too much.

Q. What do you at 11:00 in the night now in Rome?
VENUS WILLIAMS: Well, you see, I have this thing called FOMO, and it's called fear of missing out. I hate going to bed. I feel like I'm missing out. I need to read and I need to get a lot of things done. I can organize my room.

I don't like to go to bed, so I have to focus on going to sleep. It's hard, because I feel like I'm going miss out on something.

So I'm going to try really hard to go to sleep. (Laughter.) FOMO is a really big problem for a lot of people.

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Sunday was neither a day of rest or salvation for top players Dinara Safina, Ana Ivanovic, Vera Zvonareva or Nadia Petrova. Each player was knocked out in the third round of the Sony Ericsson Open.

Americans Venus and Serena Williams did not fall victim to the Sunday blues of the other ladies. Both Venus and Serena displayed convincing wins as they moved into the round of 16.

German Anna-Lena Groenefeld fell in straight sets to Venus 7-5, 6-3, and China's Shuai Peng did likewise to Serena 7-5, 6-2.


Up next for Venus is Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska and Serena will play China's Jie Zheng.





In a fairly routine victory, Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga knocked out American qualifier Robert Kendrick 7-5, 6-4.

Tsonga will confront fellow Frenchman Gilles Simon in the round of 16.

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Unfortunately, I'm not the least bit surprised at the way things went for Russian Dinara Safina in the women's final of the Australian Open this morning. The new World No. 1, American Serena Williams, was going to bring far too much physical power and will power for Safina to mount any type of credible challenge for the title. Safina was pulverized 6-0, 6-3.

For Serena, this is her 10th grand slam title earned in her 10th year of playing the Australian Open. Along with sister Venus, the two had already earned the doubles title yesterday.

For Safina, it was a sad sight to see. I just wanted to cry for that baby mid second set; she looked so defeated. She couldn't even muster a bravado for the crowd. Yet, it is these types of beat downs in life that generally raise your level...I hope that's what it does for her.

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The Australian Open women's final will consist of American Serena Williams and Russian Dinara Safina. Both ladies looked really good in their semifinals on Wednesday. Serena defeated another Russian, Elena Dementieva, whom she has been having all sorts of trouble with lately,
6-3, 6-4. Dinara had a bit more trouble defeating fellow Russian Vera Zvonareva, but it still resulted in a win for her coming in at 6-3, 7(7)-6(4).

I'm looking forward to this match, I really like both of these ladies. It's been nice seeing Dinara turn her game around and come into her own over this past year and more. Serena of course is the tried and true who's going to fight to the bitter end. We've seen a bit of that grit in Dinara too throughout this Open.

While my money is on Serena, Dinara is capable of putting up a formidable fight. Let the games begin.

Oh, and there needs to be some Clint Eastwood "High Plains Drifter" music playing when these two come out.

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BEIJING (AP) — James Blake could shrug off the three match points he failed to convert, and even the misfire on an easy forehand that would have given him a berth in the Olympic final.

What stuck in his craw was the notion his opponent didn't play fair.

Blake came up one shot short Friday, losing in the semifinal to Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 4-6, 7-5, 11-9. Afterward he accused Gonzalez of failing to fess up on a disputed point two games before the finish.

"I've spoken all week about how much I've enjoyed the Olympic experience, how much I love the spirit of it," Blake said. "That's a disappointing way to exit the tournament, when you not only lose the match, but you lose a little faith in your fellow competitor."

Actually, the No. 8-seeded Blake remains in the tournament. A first-time Olympian at 28, he'll play for a bronze Saturday as the last hope for a U.S. medal in men's or women's singles.

Gonzalez, seeded 12th, will play in Sunday's final against Rafael Nadal, who clinched his first Olympic medal by beating Novak Djokovic 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.

Venus and Serena Williams won twice to reach the semifinals in doubles, but the U.S. team lost its other matches. Top-seeded Mike and Bob Bryan were beaten in the semifinals by Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka, 7-6 (6), 6-4. The Swiss team clinched at least a silver — the first medal for Federer in the three Olympics he has played.

Americans Lindsay Davenport and Liezel Huber were eliminated in the doubles quarterfinals.

The incident that upset Blake occurred with Gonzalez serving at 8-9 in the final set. On the first point, Blake hit a backhand passing shot long but contended the ball ticked Gonzalez's racket before landing, as TV replays confirmed.

Blake appealed in vain to the chair umpire, and said Gonzalez should have conceded the point. Blake went on to lose the game to make it 9-all.

"Playing in the Olympics, in what's supposed to be considered a gentleman's sport, that's a time to call it on yourself," Blake said. "Fernando looked me square in the eye and didn't call it."

Gonzalez said he was uncertain whether the ball hit his racket.

"I didn't feel anything," Gonzalez said. "I mean, it's just one point. There is an umpire. If I'm 100 percent sure about it, I mean, I will give it. But I'm not sure."

Blake described Gonzalez as a great player who does everything in his power to win, "usually" within the rules.

"Whatever he wants to say is fine," Blake said. "Whatever is going to get him to have some sleep tonight, then that's fine."

New No. 1 Jelena Jankovic lost in the women's quarterfinals to No. 6 Dinara Safina of Russia, 6-2, 5-7, 6-3. Safina won her 14th match in a row and will play Li Na of China in the semifinals Saturday.

The other women's semifinal will be an all-Russian matchup between No. 5 Elena Dementieva and No. 9 Vera Zvonareva.

Nadal came to Beijing assured of earning the No. 1 ranking for the first time next week, ending Federer's 4 1/2-year reign. Now the Spaniard is one win from adding an Olympic title to the French Open and Wimbledon championships he has already claimed this year.

It was after midnight when Nadal closed out his latest victory in dramatic fashion. On match point he scrambled to retrieve two overhead slams by Djokovic. When the flustered Serb shanked a third overhead, Nadal collapsed to the hard court in jubilation.

"When I arrived here, I didn't expect for sure to be in this final. I arrived very tired," Nadal said. "But when the week is coming, I felt better and better. I'm very happy to have this experience in my life."

Federer, eliminated in singles Thursday by Blake, kept alive his bid for a medal by winning a rain-interrupted match with Wawrinka over Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes of India 6-2, 6-4. Six hours later the Swiss team defeated the Bryan brothers.

"Having beaten the best in the world and going for gold, it's an incredible scenario," Federer said. "This is a big moment in my career."

The Williams sisters, both eliminated in singles Thursday, completed a suspended second-round doubles match and beat Ayumi Morita and Ai Sugiyama of Japan, 7-5, 6-2. The Williamses then defeated Zvonareva and Elena Vesnina 6-4, 6-0.

Davenport and Huber lost to Anabel Medina Garriguez and Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain 5-7, 7-6 (6), 8-6.

Blake and Gonzalez played the first match on center court, and there was tension between them as early as the second set, when Gonzalez slammed an easy forehand at his opponent's head from point-blank range.

Blake glared at Gonzalez, who apologized. Afterward Blake said he was upset only in the "heat of the moment."

As for the later point of dispute, the match wouldn't have reached that stage had Blake converted one of his three match points after Gonzalez fell behind 5-6, love-40 serving in the final set.

At 10-9 it was Gonzalez who struggled to convert match points, but on the fifth one he smacked a service winner for the victory.

"It was really one or two points, and who played those one or two points better," Blake said. "Today he did at the end."

After beating Federer, Blake showed no sign of an upset hangover. He served well, winning 15 consecutive service points at one stretch, and repeatedly negated the big-swinging Chilean's forehand by pinning him deep in baseline rallies.

Blake even pulled off a nifty trick shot, retreating to retrieve a lob and hitting a back-to-the-net, between-the-legs forehand. Gonzalez was so startled he dumped an easy forehand into the net.

Three times in the second set, Blake was two points from victory. But the best opportunity came in the third set, when he went for a winner on his first match point and sailed a forehand long.

Gonzalez then hit four winners in a row to hold for 6-all, and eight games later he was thrusting his arms to sky after clinching a medal.

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