New York - James Blake and Mardy Fish followed Andy Roddick in a continuing an American US Open revival with wins into the third round on Thursday. Blake, the ninth seed who struggled for five sets in his opening match to subdue teenaged Donald Young, caught a break when Belgian Steve Darcis retired trailing 4-6, 6-3, 1-0 with a back problem.
Blake, never a consistent performer at the big events, has been trying to bottle the magic he showed as he knocked Roger Federer out of the Olympic quarter-finals this month before losing his last two matches and coming home without a medal.
The soon-to-be-married Fish advanced over Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to follow best friend Roddick, who won his opening match on Wednesday.
Seeds kept up a hot pace at Flushing Meadows, with Spain's number four David Ferrer, number six Andy Murray and number 10 Stan Wawrinka all moving through.
Ferrer beat German Andreas Beck 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (7-5); Murray put out France's Michael Llodra 6-1, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (9-7); while Olympic doubles gold medallist Wawrinka secured a straight-sets win of the week over American Wayne Odesnik 6-4, 7-6 (8-6), 6-2.
Women's Beijing Olympic silver medallist Dinara Safina sees room for improvement in her near-flawless current game after swamping Italian Roberta Vinci 6-4, 6-3.
"I think it still could be better, especially I was 4-1 up in the first set and then I let it go to 4-all," said the Russian who has reached the finals in six of her last seven tournaments, including the Games and the French Open.
"I was lucky that I hold my serve, there is much more room for me to play better."
Safina is on a roll having won her 17th match from her last 18 with titles at Stanford and Montreal over the hardcourt summer.
She took little more than an hour to go through, firing six aces and limiting her unforced errors to 17.
Five-time Wimbledon winner Venus Williams, seeded seventh, set the pace in her family as she hammered Rossana Del Los Rios of Paraguay 6-0, 6-3.
Williams, who won back-to-back trophies at the event in 2000 and 2001 said she is ready to resume an interrupted tradition.
"I feel overdue but you have got to win it to deserve it. I'm always expecting more from myself. I would love to win even more than what I do."
Polish ninth seed Agnieszka Radwanska advanced over Mariana Duque Marino of Columbia 6-0, 7-6 (7-3), while Italian Tathiana Garbin knocked out number 13 Hungarian Agnes Szavay 5-7, 6-2, 6-3.
