Sports > Open-Blake shocks Nadal, Dementieva survives

The 25-year-old outclassed the teenager who has taken tennis by storm this year 6-4 4-6 6-3 6-1 to cause another super-sized upset in the men's singles draw following the first round exit of U.S. fourth seed Andy Roddick.

This time, though, U.S. fans celebrated wildly on Arthur Ashe Court as Blake, who won the pre-U.S. Open tournament in New Haven and is ranked 49, made French Open champion Nadal look ordinary.

"I'm waiting for the alarm clock to go off and I'm going to wake up," Blake gasped. "I can't believe how well things are going. This is a dream come true."

The American, who was ranked only 210 in April after a dreadful 2004 during which he broke his neck and lost his father to cancer, will play either Sebastien Grosjean of France or Spain's Tommy Robredo in round four.

Nadal said simply: "I played bad, he played better."

Another of the men's game's teenage talents, French 13th seed Richard Gasquet, outlasted Croatian Ivan Ljubicic 3-6 7-6 6-7 6-3 6-2.

Gasquet, the 2002 junior champion at Flushing Meadows, is making his debut in the senior draw and the 19-year-old matched his best grand slam performance having also reached the last 16 at Wimbledon.

Justine Henin-Hardenne and Elena Dementieva survived plucky fight-backs before reaching the fourth round of the women's singles.

French Open champion Henin-Hardenne, the seventh seed, took the first nine games of her 6-0 7-6 third round win over South Korean Cho Yoon-jeong.

Cho, though, suddenly came to life and forced a tiebreak with some punishing groundstrokes before Henin-Hardenne restored order, winning it 7-4.

"I took a step back on the court," conceded the Belgian, who was the champion at Flushing Meadows in 2003. "She took her opportunities and put me under a lot of pressure."

NO EXCUSE

Sixth seed Dementieva, who was runner-up last year, flirted with defeat in her 6-1 4-6 7-6 victory over fellow Russian battler Anna Chakvetadze.

As usual, Dementieva's game was infested with double-faults -- she served 19 in total -- and she trailed 3-0 in the third set.

Eventually her experience told against 18-year-old Chakvetadze who finished in tears after losing the tiebreak 7-5.

"She deserved to win this one, I was a little bit lucky," admitted Dementieva. "I have no excuse for serving like that."

The Russian plays Swiss 11th seed Patty Schnyder in the fourth round, a repeat of their last 16 clash at the Australian Open which Dementieva lost having led by a set and 4-1.

Schnyder beat Japan's Shinobu Asagoe 6-1 6-3.

Blake's match on Arthur Ashe Court was due to be followed by the clash between 35-year-old U.S. seventh seed Andre Agassi and dangerous Czech teenager Tomas Berdych.

Chile's Olympic champion Nicolas Massu reached a grand slam fourth round for the first time when he thrashed Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka 6-4 6-3 6-0.

Women's second seed Lindsay Davenport will seek a place in the last 16 when she faces Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues in the evening session.

2005-09-04