Blake beats Korean Lee to reach final in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES, July 21 (Reuters) Second-seeded James Blake, hunting his first ATP title in six months, booked his place in the Los Angeles Classic final with a 6-3 4-6 6-3 victory over South Korea's Lee Hyung-taik today.

The shaven-headed American, competing in his fourth semi-final of the year, survived an erratic spell during the second set before sealing the win in one hour 48 minutes.

Blake, who fired down 10 aces in searing heat, will meet either Czech Radek Stepanek or German wildcard Nicolas Kiefer in tomorrow's final at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.

Stepanek and Kiefer were scheduled to meet in Saturday's evening semi-final.

Although Blake was broken in the fourth game of the opening set, he immediately hit back by breaking Lee in the fifth after the Korean made an unforced error on game point.

That sparked a run of five successive games won by the American whose forehand was in blistering form as he also broke Lee in the seventh and ninth games to clinch the set.

The Asian number one, in fluent form with his groundstrokes, broke Blake at the start of the second set and both players comfortably held serve until the sixth game when Lee came back from 0-40 down to stretch his lead to 4-2.

Blake produced a Houdini-like escape of his own in the ninth, twice going advantage down to the Korean before a brilliant backhand pass earned him the game after a marathon rally.

Lee, playing in his first ATP semi-final of the year after knocking out third-seeded Russian Marat Safin in the previous round, then held serve to level the match at one set all.

The final set went with serve until the ninth game when Lee was broken after netting a backhand volley while advancing towards the net.

Blake, 5-3 ahead, served out for victory after Lee hit a backhand into the net after saving one matchpoint.

REUTERS DH PM0246