Blake, Fish reach doubles semifinals at Wimbledon

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) - American duo James Blake and Mardy Fish reached the semifinals of the Wimbledon doubles tournament, putting them two wins away from a first Grand Slam title.

Blake hasn't won a doubles title since 2004, while Fish has won two this year with different partners.

"To be honest, we feel like we can win any tournament," Fish said after they defeated Simon Aspelin of Sweden and Paul Hanley of Australia 7-6 (5), 6-4, 7-6 (5) Wednesday in the quarterfinals. "We've won tournaments before, but it has been a little while. And we've beaten almost everybody out there. If we're both playing well we can do really well."

For a while, though, it looked like they may not even be able to enter the doubles tournament. Blake lost to Andreas Seppi of Italy in the first round in singles, and Fish told him it was OK if he wanted to skip doubles.

However, Blake decided to stick around since he is playing in the Davis Cup quarterfinals in Croatia later this month.

"It makes a difference playing with a good friend and someone who is fun to play with," Blake said. "He sent a text right away that he'd understand if I needed to go, needed to leave, which was great. That's another good thing about playing with a singles player, who knows that (losing) feeling."

Fish lost in the third round to Novak Djokovic.

Blake and Fish upset third-seeded Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic and Leander Paes of India in straight sets in the first round. They will next face second-seeded Daniel Nestor of Canada and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia.

In the other semifinal, top-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan will play Wesley Moodie of South Africa and Dick Norman of Belgium.

Neither Blake nor Fish had ever made the quarterfinals at Wimbledon before, in singles or doubles.

"Now we're in the Final Eight Club," Fish said.

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AMERICAN JUNIORS: Unseeded Alex Domijan of Wesley Chapel, Fla., upset No. 1 Daniel Berta of Sweden 6-3, 6-3 in the junior tournament at Wimbledon on Wednesday to join two other Americans in the quarterfinals.

It was the second straight upset by Domijan, who beat 13th-seeded Hsieh Cheng Peng of Taiwan in the previous round. In the semifinals, Domijan will play Devin Britton, who won an NCAA title for the University of Mississippi in May.

The 17-year-old Domijan lost to Britton, of Jackson, Miss., last month on grass at the International Junior Championships in nearby Roehampton, England.

Qualifier Jordan Cox, of Duluth, Ga., also advanced after beating Andrei Vasilevski of Belarus 7-6 (3), 6-3.

Seventh-seeded Sloane Stephens, of San Pedro, Calif., is the last American girl remaining in the tournament after beating No. 10 Camila Silva of Chile 6-2, 7-6 (1).

Stephens will next face top-seeded Kristina Mladenovic of France in the quarterfinals.

The last American boy to win the Wimbledon junior title was Donald Young in 2007, while no U.S. girl has done it since Chanda Rubin in 1992.

No Americans reached the quarterfinal round of the 2008 junior tournaments.

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GRANDMA JINX: Andy Murray's grandmother has been banned from the guest box at Wimbledon - by her own daughter.

Judy Murray is worried that her own mom, Shirley Erskine, will jinx Andy, who is trying to become the first British man since Fred Perry in 1936 to win the tournament.

Murray lost his last three matches attended by his grandmother - each time on his birthday.

"She is clearly a jinx and I'm not taking her again," Judy Murray told the Daily Express.

Murray comfortably beat Spanish wild card Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 Wednesday to reach his first Wimbledon semifinal - without Erskine at Centre Court.

However, grandma is still hoping to be let in for the semifinals.

"I'm trying to convince the family I'm not a jinx, because I want to be down there cheering Andy on," Erskine said. "If I could do anything to bring Andy good luck, I would."

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MISSING MISS: The traditional use of the prefix "Miss" or "Mrs." before women's names on the Wimbledon scoreboards has been scrapped this year.

Wimbledon organizers decided to put the full name of female players on the scoreboards - like they do with the men - in yet another step by the All England Club to modernize the tournament. For the last 132 years, a prefix has always been used for the women.

However, umpires still refer to the players as Miss or Mrs. during matches.