Blake bullies Federer before losing

New York, Sept 08: Twice defending champion Roger Federer faced two pressure-packed tiebreaks before seeing off a stubborn James Blake in the U.S. Open quarter-finals on Thursday. Federer won the first set in a tiebreak and lost the third on another before winning 7-6 6-0 6-7 6-4 to reach his 10th successive grand slam semi-final -- matching Ivan Lendl's Open era record streak.

Federer will meet seventh seed Nikolay Davydenko of Russia on Saturday for a place in the final. Davydenko advanced with a five-set victory over Germany's Tommy Haas earlier in the day.

Australian Open and Wimbledon winner Federer has won all seven previous matches against the Russian.

Federer saved four set points and held match point at 9-8 but Blake saved with a backhand winner down the line and took the next two points to force a fourth set.

The Swiss again looked set to sail to victory, going up by two breaks for a 5-1 lead before Blake hit back with a break of his own.

Federer finally dismissed Blake on his third match point of the game when the American dumped a backhand into the net.

Russian Nikolay Davydenko produced a stirring comeback as he recovered from two sets down to beat German Tommy Haas 4-6 6-7 6-3 6-4 6-4 to reach the U.S. Open semi-finals on Thursday (September 7).

The seventh seed was outplayed for two sets but Haas, who won back-to-back fifth-set tiebreaks to reach the last eight, tired as the match wore on and Davydenko held his nerve to reach the semi-finals in New York for the first time.

"I think I was lucky," Davydenko said. "But it was tough, I was 5-2 (up in the final set) then break point and 5-4 and I didn't know what I could do, but I am happy to be in the semi-finals."

Haas won four straight games to win the first set and looked on course for his first semi-final at Flushing Meadows when he took the second on a tiebreak.

But Davydenko refused to give in and one break in each set helped him to level the match.

After trading breaks at the start of the deciding set, Davydenko broke twice to lead 5-2 but Haas saved a match point and broke back and reduced the deficit to 5-4.

Haas then had two break points to level at 5-5 but Davydenko held on.

Bureau Report