Blake ousts in-form Simon in 2nd round

Rafael Nadal needed little time to win his 30th straight match.

The Spaniard spent only 48 minutes on court and earned a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Florent Serra of France in the second round of the Cincinnati Masters on Wednesday.

Nadal hasn't lost since May, winning five titles, including an epic five-set victory over Roger Federer in the Wimbledon final. In his first match on Cincinnati's extremely fast courts, he hardly missed a shot.

Serra, who hasn't won consecutive matches since May, managed to win only 20 points, and two of those came on double-faults. Nadal dropped only 13 points in winning the first nine games of the match.

"It's important when you're playing a lot of matches to have one like this," he said.

Nadal, ranked No. 2 in the world for a record 158 weeks, has closed the gap with No. 1 Federer, who needed three sets to win his opening match in Cincinnati. There is a chance that Nadal could overtake him this week.

"Everyone wants to be No. 1, but now my focus is Cincinnati," Nadal said. "My only goal is to continue playing like I have the last four or five weeks. I do that, I will have a lot of chances to be No. 1."

Nadal had a much easier time than third-seeded Novak Djokovic, who struggled with his serve and had to save 10 break points while beating rising Italian Simone Bolelli 7-6 (2), 7-6 (2).

"I didn't play at my top level," said Djokovic, the defending champion. "I was up and down with my serve."

Last year's runner-up James Blake, who ousted the inform Gilles Simon 6-4, 6-3, advanced along with No. 8-seeded Andy Murray, and No. 10 Fernando Verdasco, but No. 5 David Ferrer, a quarterfinalist the previous two years, was upset by Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador. No. 11 Richard Gasquet also fell.

Blake didn't have much trouble with Simon, who was coming off a breakthrough win on hardcourts. The 23-year-old Frenchman won in Indianapolis, his first ATP title in the United States, was a semifinalist last week in Toronto, and at a career-best No. 14 ranking. But he couldn't keep up with the seventh-seeded Blake, who ran off four straight points to break Simon's serve and clinch the first set. Blake then held serve throughout a 26-minute second set.

"I'm just as surprised as anyone," Blake said. "I figured it was going to be a really tough match."

Last year, Blake made it to the final of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters before losing to Roger Federer. He's on the upswing again, having reached the semifinals at Indianapolis two weeks ago and the quarterfinals in Toronto.

"This is always the time of year I appreciate most," said Blake, who improved to 24-8 on hard courts. "I've had my best results on this kind of court, getting ready for the U.S. Open. So it fits my game the best, and I feel good and healthy and strong."

Reassured that the pain in his right knee was nothing serious, Murray relaxed and beat Sam Querrey of the United States 7-6 (3), 6-1, showing better movement on the court as the match went along.

Murray had a scan on Monday on the knee, which bothers him when he plays a lot of matches in a short time. He was assured that there was some inflammation but nothing else wrong.

"It was just some inflammation around the kneecap," Murray said. "Every time I have a scan it's always there, but at certain times of the year it gets worse when I play a lot of the matches, and also on the hard courts as well."

Murray reached the semifinals in Toronto last week before losing to Rafael Nadal. He arrived in Cincinnati with a No. 9 world ranking and concern that the knee could prevent him from having another good week.

"For me, it is a really important tournament and I want to do well," Murray said. "I've got a good chance of moving my ranking up again this week. To try to get myself seeded in the top eight for the U.S. Open is key, so I want to try and do better than the guys that are ranked around me."

Verdasco beat Australian qualifier Chris Guccione 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4) while Lapentti downed Ferrer 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-3 for his first win over a top-10 player on hardcourts in five years. He also reached the Cincinnati third round for the first time since 1999.

Also, Dmitry Tursunov removed Gasquet 7-6 (80, 6-0, Ernests Gulbis of Latvia defeated Arnaud Clement of France 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (5), and Tommy Haas of Germany moved on when Gael Monfils of France retired with illness while trailing 5-1.