James Blake is on the verge of his second ATP Masters Series final after defeating fellow American Sam Querrey 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 Friday night to reach the semifinals of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters. Blake, who was the beaten finalist at the 2006 Pacific Life Open, now plays Russian Nikolay Davydenko, an emphatic 6-2, 6-4 win over Spaniard David Ferrer.

Blake leads Davydenko 5-0 in career meetings, but they have not played since the round-robin stage of the 2006 Tennis Masters Cup last November.

Appearing in his first ATP Masters Series quarterfinal, Querrey opened strongly and surprisingly matched Blake from the baseline in a fierce exchange. The 19-year-old, noted for his booming serve, hit just four aces and put only 53 percent of first serves into play in the first set but converted his third break chance on set point with a crisp down-the-line backhand that Blake was unable to control at the net.

But Blake took care of his serve in the second and third sets, when he didn’t face a break point, while breaking Querrey once in each set. He also cut his unforced error count from 20 in the first set to nine total for the last two sets.

"I don't know how to explain it. My game is one that's pretty aggressive and I go for my shots," Blake said. "I think sometimes it's tough when you play a really, really good match to come out the next day because you don't know what the expectations are. Are you going to keep that level up? Are you going to be disappointed if it's not exactly the same?

"So I felt like I did a great job mentally after losing that first set and not playing my best of just hanging with it, still serving well, and I didn't get broken after that and still going after my shots but they were going in."

Davydenko was simply devastating in his 6-2, 6-4 defeat of Spaniard David Ferrer, taking the ball early, hitting flat and with enormous power, and running Ferrer from side to side. Ferrer tried unsuccessfully to counterpunch but was largely unable to get Davydenko on the run.

A frustrated Ferrer received a code violation for racquet abuse after being broken for the second consecutive time to go down a double break in the second set. He also lost his first two service games in the opening set - both to love - after coming into the match having dropped serve just once in the tournament.

Ferrer looked destined to be bageled in the second set when he trailed 0-4 15/40 on serve before pulling out three consecutive games. But it was too little too late as Davydenko powered to his fifth semifinal of the year. He is the first Russian since Yevgeny Kafelnikov in 1999 to reach the Cincinnati semifinals and he will now try to reach his first final of 2007.

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