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STANISLAS Wawrinka rallied past eighth-seeded James Blake 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 6-1 at the Rome Masters yesterday to reach his second semifinal in two weeks.
"It's my first Masters Series semifinal, so I'm very pleased," Wawrinka said.
Blake was coming off three-setters in his opening two matches, and the American appeared to lose energy as the match wore on.
Blake missed an easy volley to hand Wawrinka a break in the first game of the third set, and Wawrinka rolled from there.
Wawrinka called for a trainer to treat his lower back with a 6-5 lead in the second set, then again with a 2-1 lead in the third, but the problem did not appear to affect his play.
Wawrinka is ranked a career-high 24th this week after reaching the semifinals of the Barcelona Open last weekend, losing to David Ferrer.
Wawrinka will next face either No. 6 Andy Roddick or No. 14 Tommy Robredo, who were playing later.
Wawrinka said his back problem stemmed from the many matches he's played lately.
"I will try to be 100 percent for tomorrow," he said.
Roddick holds a 7-0 career record against Robredo.
The n ight match featured Australian Open winner Novak Djokovic against Spanish clay-court specialist Nicolas Almagro.
The Rome Masters is an important clay-court tuneup for the French Open, which begins May 25.
Late on Thursday, world No. 1 Roger Federer beat Croatia's Ivo Karlovic 7-6, 6-3 to book a quarterfinal against Czech Radek Stepanek.
Federer's fluid game met stubborn resistance from Karlovic in the first set. The Croat, aided by some brutal serves, saved four break points in the eighth game and a set point in the 12th before losing the tiebreak. The Swiss then drilled a forehand on to the line to clinch the third of three break points in the fifth game of the second and broke again in the final game to cruise home.
In Berlin, Dinara Safina ended Serena Williams' 17-match winning streak with a 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (5) victory yesterday to reach the German Open semifinals. The 17th-ranked Russian kept pressuring Williams' backhand, the same tactic that worked a day earlier in an upset of top-ranked Justine Henin.
Both players held serve throughout the final set, before Williams let a 4-3 lead in the tiebreaker slip away and sent a forehand long and wide to end the two-hour match.
Serena, chasing a fourth straight title, appeared poised to improve on a 21-1 record this year without trouble until Safina's hard shots began to land in the second set.
Williams was the 10th top-10 victim for the 22-year-old Safina, the sister of two-time grand slam champion Marat Safin. After a 2007 slump, the Russian said a win last month against Lindsay Davenport restored her belief in her ability to beat the top players.
Agencies
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