Former world number one Marat Safin booked a spot in the quarter-finals of the Legg Mason Classic with a 7-6, 7-6 victory over top seed James Blake in Washington on Thursday.
Blake, the 2002 champion, sprayed his shots all over the court and never found his rhythm against Safin, a two-time Grand Slam winner whose ranking has plummeted to 92 following a string of injuries.
"Sometimes I was tentative, sometimes I was going for a little too much," Blake told reporters.
"When I was too tentative, he was putting the pressure on me, when I was going for too much, I was missing a little bit.
"My game kind of comes and goes with my forehand. When my forehand's coming in, I'm pretty tough to beat. If it's not, then at times I'm pretty beatable."
Despite Blake's spotty play, he took the unseeded Safin into a first set tiebreaker but lost, 8-6 when he blasted a forehand wide.
Blake survived two match points before a Safin forehand nicked the tape and sailed over the American's head to win the second-set tiebreaker 7-5 and close out the match.
"It was bad luck on that last point but he put himself in that position," Blake said. "He played well."
FOURTH VICTORY
Safin, still on the comeback trail from a knee injury he picked up after he won the 2005 Australian Open, blasted 10 aces, but more importantly played the big points well in earning his fourth victory over a top 10 player this season.
"This is the kind of match I've been looking for the past four months and it finally came back to me," Safin said.
"I've been looking for this since the spring. I haven't won a couple of matches in any tournament since Valencia, which was in April. For me to win three matches, it's a big party."
Joining Safin in the last eight will be third seed Lleyton Hewitt, who served his way to a 6-1, 6-4 triumph over Germany's Denis Gremelmayr.
Hewitt fired down just five aces but had no double faults and never faced a break point against Gremelmayr, a left-hander ranked 120th in the world.
"I had my rhythm out there right from the start," Hewitt said.
"I felt like I was able to pressure on his service games throughout the whole first set. Pretty much every game I was in control."
In the last eight, Hewitt will face 11th seed Arnaud Clement of France, who blasted nine aces and never lost his serve during a 6-3, 6-2 upset of fifth seed Dominik Hrbaty.
Elsewhere, American Mardy Fish also advanced with a 6-3, 6-1 whipping of Andrea Stoppini, the Italian who stunned Andre Agassi in straight sets on Tuesday.
