No. 4 Blake, No. 6 Andreev advance in Switzerland; Fish, Baghdatis eliminated

Fourth-seeded Tampa, Florida based James Blake (pictured) won his first round match on Wednesday at the Davidoff Swiss Indoors in Basel, but best friend and newly married Mardy Fish was not so lucky, falling in straight sets to Spaniard Feliciano Lopez in the second round. No. 6 seed Igor Andreev was also a winner on Day Three in Basel, a town known as Roger Federer’s birthplace.

Blake, who lost early in Madrid last week in his first fall tournament of the year due to lots of rest and relaxation after a long summer of tournament play, got back to his winning ways as he defeated German Nicolas Kiefer, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Improving his season record to 44-22, Blake smashed 11 aces and was able to break the German’s serve on three occasions. Blake improves to 4-1 lifetime against Kiefer, who was once ranked No. 4 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, but currently stands at No. 37. Next up for Blake is a second round clash with Spaniard Oscar Hernandez, whom he owns a 2-0 career record against, winning most recently in the semifinals of the Houston event earlier this year.

In a second round battle, Lopez stunned No. 8 Fish, 7-6(9), 6-4, in just fewer than 90 minutes to prevent a possible quarterfinal between Fish and his best friend Blake. The Lopez and Fish match was a fine display of serving, as the left-handed Spaniard fired 16 aces compared to three double faults, while the hard-hitting right-handed star from Florida smashed 14 aces and six double faults. Fish won 89 percent of first serve points while Lopez won 83 percent of his first serve points, but it was the Spaniard who was able to get the only break of serve during the match. Currently ranked No. 39, Lopez improves to 2-0 lifetime against Fish. With the loss, Fish falls to 32-23 on the season which has been filled with successful results including beating Federer at the Masters Series Indian Wells and reaching the quarterfinals at the US Open in New York.

Also in the second round, Andreev snuck by German Philipp Kohlschreiber, 7-6(6), 6-7(0), 7-5, in two hours and 34 minutes to advance to his eighth quarterfinal of the season. The aggressive Russian smashed 17 aces past his German opponent and was able to win 54 of 68 points on his first serve. Currently ranked No. 21, Andreev improves to 42-30 on the year and now owns a remarkable 7-0 career edge against Kohlschreiber. In the quarterfinals, the Russian will either face No. 3 seed Juan Martin Del Potro or Swiss wild card Stephane Bohli.

Other players winning their opening round matches on Wednesday included Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen, Spaniard Marcel Granollers and qualifier Kristof Vliegen. Nieminen broke serve on four occasion en route to a, 6-2, 6-4, win over Argentine Eduardo Schwank. Granollers, the 2008 Houston champion, defeated former Basel finalist Marcos Baghdatis, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, in over two hours. Vliegen, who is trying to work his way back into the Top 30 after injuries caused his ranking to drop to No. 96, beat German wild card Philipp Petzschner, 6-2, 6-3. In the only other second round match on Wednesday, qualifier and former Baylor University star student-athlete Benjamin Becker beat German lucky loser Andreas Beck, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, which was helped out by smashing an outstanding 19 aces. Becker next faces either No. 2 David Nalbandian or Vliegen, who will face off in the second round on Thursday.