Blake is last of U.S. men left standing

PARIS --American James Blake moved into the third round of the French Open by beating Nicolas Almagro of Spain 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 Friday in a match suspended the night before.

Blake, the final U.S. man left in the tournament, had never advanced beyond the second round in three trips to Paris.

The other U.S. man who reached the second round was Kevin Kim, and he had the misfortune of facing defending champion Rafael Nadal.

Kim hung tough for a handful of games until Nadal began to construct a 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 victory, his 55th in a row on clay, extending his Open era record.

Roger Federer, whose bid for a fourth consecutive Grand Slam title moved forward with a 6-1, 6-2, 6-7 (4), 7-5 victory over 2004 Athens Games gold medalist Nicolas Massu.

Federer now faces No. 20 Tomas Berdych, who beat Federer at those Olympics and advanced Friday when No. 13 Nicolas Kiefer quit with a left wrist injury.

The No. 3-seeded Nalbandian dropped the first two sets against Dmitry Tursunov -- a Russian who's lived in the United States since he was 12 -- and was penalized the first point of the third set for chucking his racket. But Nalbandian came through 2-6, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4.

Hingis won the first nine points against Zuzana Ondraskova and made only one unforced error in the first set en route to winning 6-1, 6-3, then said: "I almost felt sorry."

Her match was one of those delayed Thursday, so she's only in the third round. Williams is a step further after a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Karolina Sprem, who upset her at Wimbledon in 2004 with the help of an extra point mistakenly awarded by the chair umpire. Williams and Shenay Perry are the last two American women in the tournament.

"It's a little bit lonely," Williams said.

Blake is seeded eighth, based on a ranking earned mainly on hard courts, including reaching the U.S. Open quarterfinals in September -- an inspiring run after 1 1/2 years of hardships, including the death of his father, broken vertebrae in his neck and a bout of shingles.

Playing on clay presents a whole new set of on-court challenges, particularly for Americans who, as Blake noted Friday, "didn't grow up on the stuff."

"I definitely feel so much more comfortable on this surface now. I'm not going into the clay court part of the year with just kind of dread on my mind," he said after erasing a 4-1 deficit in the third set by winning five consecutive games. "I feel like I'm getting that much better each time I step on the court."

He'll be on center court Saturday in the day's final, featured match, facing No. 25 Gael Monfils, a 19-year-old Frenchman who, Blake said, "moves better than anyone. I think he might be the fastest guy on tour. The way he moves is incredible. He gets to a ton of balls and makes you win the point two, three, four times."

Hmmmmm. Sounds like a pretty apt description of Blake against Almagro.