Blake To Meet Lopez; Murray Tested

© Getty ImagesFeliciano Lopez is chasing his first title in Los Angeles.

James Blake reached his first quarter-final since Delray Beach in February when he defeated German Benjamin Becker 7-5, 7-6(5) Thursday at the Farmers Classic, an ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament in Los Angeles. The American veteran, who has slipped to No. 117 in the South African Airways ATP 2010 Rankings, snapped a four-match losing streak in the first round Tuesday when he claimed his first tour-level win since the Sony Ericsson Open in March.

Blake will next meet fourth seed Feliciano Lopez, who advanced to the quarter-finals  with a 7-6(2), 6-4 win over Dudi Sela. The left-handed Spaniard served 12 aces and saved the lone break point he faced in his first meeting with the Israeli. Lopez improved to a 21-15 match record on the season.

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"It's a great feeling to come through a tough match," said Blake, who was cheered on by NBA star Kevin Garnett of the Boston Celtics. "It definitely could have gone the other way pretty easily. [I was] down a break in the first, but that will happen as I go for my shots. Second set he had a break point early. Today there wasn’t a lot of adversity to test me, but today there was."

Looking ahead to his match with Lopez, Blake said that matching his game to the Spaniard's would not be easy. "First of all he's a lefty... and he's got one of the best first and second serves on tour and he mixes it up well. I'm a guy who likes to attack guys' second serves and he's going to make that really difficult for me. Hopefully I can direct a few more balls to his backhand and make him beat me with that."

Playing his first match since Wimbledon, top seed Andy Murray survived a three-set test Thursday night before advancing to the quarter-finals. Working off some rust, Murray, who had a bye in the first round, dropped serve four times in a 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 win over American qualifier Tim Smyczek. Former Major League Baseball player Barry Bonds and musician Gavin Rossdale watched from the sidelines.

Murray began strongly, dropping just two points on serve in the first set. But he was broken three times in the second and once again in the third. However, he broke the American three times in the deciding set to run out a comfortable winner.

"The first set was good and I started the second set with chances," said Murray. "I was struggling a little bit with my movement, when I got stiff and sore. But I managed to find a way to win.

"The top of my right hip and lower back was stiff. It isn't an injury, just on one of the changeovers my muscles started hurting. The last few changeovers I was standing up – something I have never done on tour before."

Murray, who had been undergoing a mid-season fitness camp in Miami, accepted a late wild card into the event following the withdrawal of World No. 2 Novak Djokovic. "There is a huge difference between the grass courts and hard," said Murray, "but last week I was practising for an hour each day and not really doing that match moving."

Colombian Alejandro Falla caused a  3-6, 6-4, 7-6(8) upset of fifth seed Ernests Gulbis to reach his second quarter-final of the year. Falla needed five match points to close out the match, having chances in the third-set tie-break at 6/4, 7/6, 8/7 and, finally, 9/8.

The 21-year-old Gulbis was playing in his first tournament in two months after suffering a hamstring injury at Roland Garros.