AP News, June 15th, 2007
James Blake lost in slippery conditions to Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4, 6-3 Friday in the quarterfinals of the Gerry Weber Open.
The 34th-ranked German broke Blake's serve at love to take a 5-4 lead in the first set, then got another break at 4-3 in the second in front of 8,000 cheering home fans at the grass-court warmup for Wimbledon.
"I did not play like a top player," said the eighth-ranked Blake. "That's frustrating, but he gave me a chance to beat myself and I did that."
Kohlschreiber next faces eighth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis, who defeated Florian Mayer 6-3, 6-3.
Jarkko Nieminen also reached the semifinals when Marc Gicquel withdrew with stomach pains after dropping the first set 6-4. The Finn will face fourth-seeded Tomas Berdych, who had a walkover after Mikhail Youzhny withdrew with back pains.
Kohlschreiber's second-set break came after rain forced organizers to close the retractable roof. Both players still slipped several times on the wet grass, and Blake said officials should have let the courts dry before play resumed.
"Coming up to Wimbledon, I really would rather not twist my knee, my ankle on a court like this," Blake said. "You just wait 10 minutes, the match is still going to be finished. They have a roof, it's not like we are going to be here all night. So I really don't understand that."
Kohlschreiber was pleased with his performance.
"I just played good, I was always ahead," Kohlschreiber said. "I thought, OK, I'm in the quarterfinals against the No. 8, nobody can blame me if I lose."
Baghdatis needed less than an hour to beat the 37th-ranked Mayer, who didn't come close to threatening the former Australian Open finalist.
"I made very few mistakes and I served well and I returned well, which put a lot of pressure on him," said Baghdatis, who reached the semifinals at last year's Wimbledon.
