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Lopez, Falla win second-round matches
Fourth-seeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain defeated Dudi Sela of Israel 7-6 (7), 6-4 in the second round of the Farmers Classic in Los Angeles on Thursday.
No 5 seed Ernests Gulbis of Latvia lost to Alejandro Falla of Colombia 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (10).
Top-seeded Andy Murray was set to open his campaign in a night match against American qualifier Tim Smyczek. The winner will play Falla in the quarterfinals.
Lopez will play American wildcard James Blake, who outlasted Benjamin Becker of Germany 7-5, 7-6 (7) at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on the UCLA campus. Blake, a finalist here in 2007, improved to 3-0 against the German.
Blake rallied from a 2-4 deficit to win the first set. He blew two match points in the 10th game of the second set before closing out the match 7-5 in the tiebreaker.
"It definitely could've gone the other way easily," he said.
"I'm doing a good job of not letting anything rattle me."
Blake reached his first quarterfinal since February in Delray Beach, Florida. The 30-year-old lost time because of a right knee injury earlier this year and he lost in the first round of his three previous tournaments. He has yet to make a semifinal this year.
"Knee pain is barely there. It's great," he said, a bag of ice taped to his knee as a post-match precaution. "When you hit 30, it becomes very apparent that your career is finite. I feel great about being healthy and playing well."
Lopez won his hard-court season debut, having been idle since reaching the round of 32 at Wimbledon.
Falla had lost in the first round of his three previous tournaments, including to Roger Federer at Wimbledon. The left-hander, ranked 65th in the world, advanced to his third quarterfinal of the year.
Gulbis was playing his first tournament in two months after sustaining a hamstring injury in a first-round loss at the French Open. He was clearly rusty and easily irritated by fans who yelled during his service motion.
"It was really tough for me to go long rallies," he said. "I physically couldn't run anymore. I couldn't make any winners.
Basically, nothing worked. If you don't fish for two months, maybe you're bad at fishing."
He received a point penalty for smashing his racket, and criticized the referee afterward. By his tally, Gulbis broke two rackets, although he tossed others.
"His only fun in life is to give warnings. It's like police," he said. "Whatever I would do I would get warning."
Top-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan were to play a second-round
doubles match against Gulbis and Dmitry Tursunov of Russia in
pursuit of their record 62nd career title.
