Fernando Gonzalez from Chile guaranteed himself a second consecutive Olympic medal when he moved into the final of the men's singles of the Beijing Olympic tennis event by scoring a thrilling 4-6, 7-5, 11-9 win over the American eighth seed James Blake in the semifinals.
Seeded 12th, Gonzalez saved three match points against his serve in the 12th game of the third set, frustrating Blake's attempt to put himself into Sunday's final, which will be a best-of-five-sets match.
Gonzalez, who saved match point to win the bronze medal at the Athens 2004, will face the winner of the other semifinal between No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal and No. 3 seed Novak Djokovic on Sunday.
"I feel tired but very excited. This is not for me, it's for my country, which are right behind me," the 28-year-old Chilean said after match.
"It's like the best dream possible. The worse that can happen is I have another medal but I would like to get another gold," added Gonzalez, who also claimed the men's doubles gold medal in Athens four years ago. Blake will play the loser of Nadal and Djokovic in the match for the bronze medal on Saturday.
Blake lost his concentration towards the end of the match when the umpire missed that Gonzalez's racquet touched a Blake backhand that went long and should have put the American 15-0 up on Gonzelez's serve in the 18th game of the third set.
Gonzalez positioned himself to win the match when he broke the American's serve on a second break point in the 19th game, when the American hit a forehand approach long.
Blake fought hard to prevent his demise by saving four match points in the final game but made two forehand errors to lose the match from deuce.
"I'm really disappointed. I had one chance at love-40," Blake, who ousted Swiss No. 1 Roger Federer in the quarterfinals on Thursday, talked about those match points he missed in the final set. "I had a forehand at the middle of court and just missed it. I kinda blew it a little trying to get him to beat me at his backhand and I missed it. I did not play great points."
Blake benefited from a Gonzalez error on the one break point in the first set, which happened on set point. Gonzalez netted an forehand to drop his serve and go behind 6-4 in the match.
But Blake's serve lost power in the second set, in which he offered Gonzalez five break point opportunities and was broken twice. Leading 5-4, Gonzalez won the final three games of the second set to even the match at one apiece.
(Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2008)