American James Blake rallied from a set and a break down to beat No. 3-ranked Nikolay Davydenko on Wednesday, continuing his perfect record against the Russian and at the Masters Cup.
Blake won 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 to improve to 4-0 against Davydenko, two days after upsetting No. 2 Rafael Nadal in his first appearance at the season-ending championship.
He is the only player in the eight-man draw with a winning record over French Open champion Nadal _ now 3-0 _ and is 3-1 against Tommy Robredo, his last rival in the Red Group.
Meanwhile, Toronto's Daniel Nestor and doubles partner Mark Knowles of the Bahamas dropped to 1-1 after losing a marathon match to Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and Max Mirnyi of Belarus.
Bjorkman and Mirnyi, the second seeds, won the two-hour 42-minute round-robin match 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2).
Spaniards Robredo and Nadal were to play later Wednesday, each looking for his first win at the Masters Cup.
If Nadal were to win that match, it would guarantee Blake a semifinal place.
Blake, the eighth-ranked and last player to qualify for the Masters Cup, struggled with his serve early and was almost pinned to the baseline by Davydenko's full, powerful groundstrokes.
He did not hold serve until the third game of the second set.
Blake twice thought he'd ended his service drought to open the second set, but Davydenko won two challenges against line calls on the same point.
The first was called an ace at 40-30, which was overturned on review of the video. Blake got the second serve into play and seemed to have won the point with a deep lob, until Davydenko challenged the baseline decision and won again.
Blake hit a backhand wide on the next point and Davydenko won the next with a forehand down the line, visibly angering the American.
After holding in the third and saving two break points to hold in the fifth, Blake won five straight games to level at one set apiece and take 1-0 lead in the deciding set.
The pair traded breaks in the fourth and fifth games and then Blake held at love in the 11th game, forcing Davydenko to hold serve to stay in the match.
Davydenko saved two match points before Blake set up his third with a rifling forehand return down the line.
Blake clinched it when Davydenko had an error on a forehand.
In other doubles action, Fabrice Santoro and Nenad Zimonjic beat Poland pair Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-3.
© The Canadian Press, 2007
