BASEL (Switzerland), Oct 23: American fourth seed James Blake kept his Masters Cup qualifying chances intact after fighting back to avoid a first round Swiss Indoors defeat against unseeded German Nicolas Kiefer on Wednesday.

Blake, currently tenth in the race for the eight-field season-ender with three places still up for grabs, lost the opening set but rallied with a break in each of the successive sets to win 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The win also saw the American avenge his only previous defeat to Kiefer in the quarter-finals of this year’s Canada Masters Series.

The world No 11 now faces Spanish world No 76 Oscar Hernandez for a place in the quarter-finals.

Blake’s compatriot and tournament eighth seed Mardy Fish fared less well – losing his second round meeting with Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 7-6, 6-4.

Fish, who was on course for a potential quarter-final meeting with Blake, lost 11-9 in the tiebreak before suffering a single break of serve in the second set.

Russian sixth seed Igor Andreev also faced a tough second round encounter, eventually beating Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-6, 6-7, 7-5 to reach the last eight.

Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen won his first round match against Argentine Eduardo Schwank to set up a second round meeting with Basel-born world No 2 Roger Federer.

Thursday’s encounter will be a re-match of last year’s final which saw Federer win his home tournament for a second successive year with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over the Finn.

Wednesday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Second round: Feliciano Lopez (Spain) bt 8-Mardy Fish (US) 7-6 (11-9), 6-4 Benjamin Becker (Germany) bt Andreas Beck (Germany) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; 6-Igor Andreev (Russia) bt Philipp Kohlschreiber (Germany) 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (0-7), 7-5.

First round: 4-James Blake (US) bt Nicolas Kiefer (Germany) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; Marcel Granollers (Spain) bt Marcos Baghdatis (Cyprus) 6-2, 4-6, 6-2; Jarkko Nieminen (Finland) bt Eduardo Schwank (Argentina) 6-2, 6-4; Kristof Vliegen (Belgium) bt Philipp Petzschner (Germany) 6-2, 6-3.

MURRAY MOVES AHEAD

ST PETERSBURG (Russia): Top seed Andy Murray continued his good form by easing into the second round of the St Petersburg Open with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Serbia’s Viktor Troicki on Wednesday.

The Briton, who won the Madrid Masters on Sunday, broke the 53rd-ranked Troicki twice in the first set and once in the second.

Murray, who won here last year on his debut appearance at the $1 million indoor tournament in Russia’s second city, now takes on 20-year-old Latvian Ernests Gulbis.

Former world No 1 Marat Safin, bidding for his third St Petersburg title after winning it in 2000 and 2001, also progressed by overpowering Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-2, 6-4.

The big Russian, seeded eighth here, will next face Kazakh qualifier Andrey Golubev, who eliminated Olivier Rochus of Belgium 6-1, 6-4.

Third-seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco was the first player to reach the quarter-finals. He overwhelmed another Latvian, the 664th-ranked Karlis Lejnieks, 6-1, 6-3.

He was joined in the last eight by unseeded German Rainer Schuettler, who dispatched Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia 6-3, 6-3.

Second-seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko was forced to pull out after injuring his wrist during Tuesday’s first-round victory over Australian Chris Guccione.

Results:

Second round: Rainer Schuettler (Germany) bt Dominik Hrbaty (Slovakia) 6-3, 6-3; 3-Fernando Verdasco (Spain) bt Karlis Lejnieks (Latvia) 6-1, 6-3.

First round: 8-Marat Safin (Russia) bt Sergiy Stakhovsky (Ukraine) 6-2, 6-4; 1-Andy Murray (Britain) bt Viktor Troicki (Serbia) 6-3, 6-3; Andrey Golubev (Kazakhstan) bt Olivier Rochus (Belgium) 6-1, 6-4.

EASY WINS

LINZ (Austria): Third seed Agnieszka Radwanska and seventh seed Flavia Pennetta of Italy claimed straight-set victories at the Linz Open on Wednesday.

Poland’s Radwanska reached the quarter-finals with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, and Pennetta was even more decisive in beating Hungary’s Agnes Szavay 6-1, 6-2 to reach the second round.

Radwanska took advantage of her error-prone opponent, who knew what she had to do but had difficulty in executing.

A double-fault gave Radwanska a break in the first game, and she broke again to love to lead 5-2 before serving out the set.

Radwanska had the opportunity to dominate the second set too, holding points for a 4-0 lead. Instead, Kanepi broke, and the next two games also went against serve to leave Radwanska leading 4-2.

Although the final games were more of a struggle than in the first set, Radwanska held on to claim victory.

Pennetta, who lost to Venus Williams in the Zurich Open on Sunday, admitted that although she had an easy victory she was beginning to feel tired because of a long doubles match the previous evening.

After breaking three times to take the first set she fell behind 0-40 in her first two service games of the second. On the first occasion she recovered to hold serve and then broke Szavay to love, but she was broken the second time.

With Szavay making a succession of errors, Pennetta was able to break again to lead 3-1, and she closed out the match with a further break at 5-2.

In other matches, Austrian Sybille Bammer set up a second-round meeting with top-seeded Serb Ana Ivanovic by beating Italy’s Francesca Schiavone 7-5, 6-3.

Results:

Second round: 8-Alize Cornet (France) bt Maria Kirilenko (Russia) 1-6, 6-2, 6-1; 3-Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) bt Kaia Kanepi (Estonia) 6-2, 6-4.

First round: Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic) bt Tamira Paszek (Austria) 6-3, 6-3; Sybille Bammer (Austria) bt Francesca Schiavone (Italy) 7-5, 6-3; 7-Flavia Pennetta (Italy) bt Agnes Szavay (Hungary) 6-1, 6-2.

—Reuters