Third seed James Blake came through another tough test on Friday to set up an all-American final against Mardy Fish [Images] in the ATP event in New Haven.

Blake, champion in 2005, ousted fifth seed Paul-Henri Mathieu of France [Images] 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 while wildcard Fish upended Ivo Karlovic 7-6, 6-4 to reach his first final in 16 months.

American Blake reached his second final in a week, but for the second day in succession he had to fight through a tough three-setter.

After trading early breaks, Blake broke Mathieu in the seventh game and held on to take the set, but the Frenchman, at a career-high ranking of 22, hit back to level.

Blake had two match points at 5-3 in the final set but was broken. Mathieu forced a tiebreak but the American rebounded to win it 7-2 and clinch victory.

Fish tamed the Karlovic serve to beat the Croat for the first time in five meetings.

"First of all, just beating him has been pretty tough for me to say the least," he said.

"I think we were both pretty tired out there but I just tried to bluff my way through it."

Both men had been forced to play two matches on Thursday after a virtual washout on Tuesday, but after taking the first-set tiebreak 7-3, Fish proved the stronger.

"I felt whoever won the first set was going to have a major advantage and though I got down a break, I broke him to 15 when he served for the set luckily and felt good from there," he said.

TEMPERATURES

The match had been played in hot temperatures, but Karlovic said that had not been his problem.

"I think because yesterday I was playing a lot and it was pretty tiring. I was here all day," he said.

"I was eating late. I slept awful. I woke up with a headache and was feeling really bad on the court today."

The heat proved too much for sixth seed Elena Dementieva, who was forced to retire from her semi-final with fellow Russian and top seed Svetlana Kuznetsova when trailing 3-0 in the third set.

Dementieva, who lost to Kuznetsova in the final of the US Open in 2004, won the first set but struggled with nausea as the match wore on.

"I just felt a little sick," Dementieva said. "I think it was really humid and hot out there and we had a very physical game from the first point.

Kuznetsova said Dementieva had told her she felt sick when she quit.

"It was very funny," she said. "She came to shake my hand and she said, 'I feel like throwing up'. And I said, 'OK, so go away from me'".

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