American James Blake came back from two sets down to beat Frenchman
Sebstien Grosjean 4-6, 2-6, 6-0, 7-6 (5), 6-2 in the third round of the men's
single of the Australian Open in Melbourne yesterday.
The 12th seed player overcame a slow start to win the match as he was down in
the first two sets and a pair of breaks in the fourth.
But Blake rallied to win four games in a row to level the match at 2-2. The
following set was all Blake's as he broke twice to a 5-1 lead in the decider and
ran to 6-1 to seal the victory of the marathon in three hours and eight minutes.
Blake will face Croatia's Martin Cilic in the next round, the latter ousted
last year's runner-up Fernando Gonzalez 6-2, 6-7 (4),6-3, 6-1 early yesterday.
World No. 1 Roger Federer faced his biggest challenge in the Australian Open
since 2006 as the Swiss was forced to the fifth set by Serbia's Janko
Tipsarevic.
It took Federer four hours and 27 minutes to finish the marathon with 6-7
(5), 7-6 (1), 5-7, 6-1, 10-8 win over world No. 49 Tipsarevic, who had never
gone past the second round in previous Australian Open
Two of Russia's top 10 women were eliminated from the tournament. World No. 2
Svetlana Kuznetsova was beaten 6-3, 6-4 by Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland and No.
6 Anna Chakvetadze lost to Maria Kirilenko 6-7 (6), 6-1, 6-2 .
Fourth-seeded Ana Ivanovic reached the fourth round with a 6-3,6-4 victory
over Katarina Srebotnik, while eighth seed Venus Williams beat Sonia Mirza in a
night match in straight sets 7-6, 6-4.
