Karlovic downs Blake in San Jose; Safin stretched

SAN JOSE, Feb 16 (Reuters) American second seed James Blake suffered a shock defeat at the San Jose Open when he was upended 6-7 7-6 6-4 by world number 103 Ivo Karlovic of Croatia in the second round.

Blake, the world number six, served for the match at 5-3 in the second set and squandered four match points in the tiebreak before going down in the decider after two hours and six minutes yesterday.

Karlovic, who hammered 29 aces, smashed a forehand return for a winner on his third match point to set up a quarter-final against another American, fifth seed Mardy Fish.

''I had it on my racket,'' Blake said.

''I was up 5-3, 30-0. No one to blame but myself for that. I made some errors, missed a few serves and that was that. It was my fault.'' After losing his serve in the eighth game of the second set, Karlovic, who missed half of 2006 because of injury, broke back and then saved four match points in the tiebreak before winning it 13-11.

That lifted his confidence and Blake began to feel the pressure in the decider, finally buckling in the 10th game when he double-faulted twice.

Though he saved two match points, he was powerless to stop the third as Karlovic crunched a winning return.

''When I lost my serve I knew I had only once chance to break so I was more aggressive and then I got more confident and my level went up,'' Karlovic said.

''He is one of the top players today so I am very happy.'' SAFIN SURVIVES Fourth seed Marat Safin came through a tough test against world number 93 Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan before advancing 6-4 5-7 6-4 in just over two hours.

In the last eight, the Russian will play German Benjamin Becker, a 7-6 1-6 6-3 victor over compatriot Bjorn Phau.

Fifth seed Fish recovered from a slow start to beat fellow American Sam Warburg 2-6 6-4 6-2.

The world number 25, a quarter-finalist at the Australian Open last month, said he was beginning to enjoy the fruits of his work in the off-season, when he reconstructed his forehand with his coach, Todd Martin.

''We hit a million forehands,'' Fish said.

''Todd was even giving me the balls by hand at first. It was repetitive and annoying but it worked. Now I feel like my forehand is not a weakness anymore. It is still a work in progress but we are way ahead of where we thought we would be.'' Eighth seed Vince Spadea, at 32 the oldest player in the draw, set up a potential clash with top seed Andy Roddick when he squeezed past Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 4-6 7-5 7-6.

Seventh seed Lee Hyung-taik will take on defending champion Andy Murray after the South Korean recorded a 6-2 7-6 win over German Simon Greul.

Roddick plays fellow American Sam Querrey in the last match.

Reuters SAM DS1315