American James Blake fought back from two sets down to seal a dramatic 4-6 2-6 6-0 7-6 6-2 victory over France's Sebastien Grosjean in the Australian Open tennis championships third round yesterday.
The 29-year-old Grosjean had raced through the first two sets before the 12th seed blasted himoff the court in the third then came from 4-1 down in the fourth and 3-0 down in the tiebreak before running away with the final set.
Blake, who until last year's US Open had not won a five-set match, said it was the best comeback of his career.
"That's got to be my biggest comeback," Blake told reporters. "Just seemed like every time there was a mountain to climb."
"The fact that I played so well to kind of get myself out of trouble in the fourth set there, I wasn't going to lose that momentum and I wasn't going to let it go the other way.
"That was a good feeling."
Blake said he felt that Grosjean's schedule, including a long five-set, second-round match against Robin Haase of the Netherlands and a three-set doubles match, had tired him out.
"Maybe his legs weren't as fresh in the fifth set.
"That's definitely the way that it seemed, especially with the amazing gets he was getting in the first two sets," said Blake.
"In the fifth set it seemed like, even though he was still getting to the balls he didn't have as much on them at the end."
Blake will meet unseeded Croat Marin Cilic, who upset 2007 runner-up and seventh seed Fernando Gonzalez, for a place in the quarter-finals.
"I saw a little bit of his match. It looked like he was playing some great tennis," Blake said.
He did.
The seventh seed simply could not contain the youngest man left in the draw who bombarded him with a barrage of 60 winners.
"Today I was playing probably the best match of my life," the 19-year-old Cilic said in a courtside interview.
"I was fortunate that we were playing indoors, it helped me a lot, with my serve. It was a little bit faster and I played a great match today."
The centre court roof at Melbourne Park was closed because of persistent drizzle which prevented play on outside courts.
