James Blake of the United States reacts in disgust after falling to Tommy Haas of Germany in a five-set tiebreaker on Monday at the U .S. Open in New York.

New York ? James Blake certainly had his chances to avoid another fifth-set disappointment.

Seven times, he was two points away from victory Monday at the U.S. Open. Three times, he was a single point away.

Blake failed to convert all three of those match points, then played about as poorly as he did all day in the final-set tiebreaker and lost, 4-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-0, 7-6 (4), to No. 10 Tommy Haas in the fourth round.

“I was a little indecisive at the end there,” said Blake, who was 0-9 in five-setters until finally winning one in the second round last week.

The match ended with a pro-Blake crowd hushed during instant-replay challenges on each of the final two points. While waiting for the final replay – which showed that Haas’ 113 mph ace was, indeed, in – the players smiled sheepishly and approached the net for a handshake they knew was coming.

The No. 6-seeded Blake’s defeat means this is the first U.S. Open since 1998 that there won’t be at least two American men in the quarterfinals. Andy Roddick is the host country’s last representative.

The 2003 champion strolled into the quarterfinals when No. 9 Tomas Berdych stopped playing early in the second set because he was having trouble breathing.

Meanwhile, Roger Federer lost the first set to Feliciano Lopez, barely won the second, then trailed love-40 to start the third. And then Federer did the sort of remarkable thing that only Federer does: He won the next 35 points he served.

Answering every question Lopez posed with an exclamation point, Federer rallied for a 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-4 win in the fourth round. Next up for the No. 1-ranked Federer is a quarterfinal against No. 5 Roddick.

Worried they couldn’t expect much interest in the two low-wattage quarterfinals coming Wednesday – 2004 champ Svetlana Kuznetsova against 18-year-old Agnes Szavay, and No. 18 Shahar Peer against No. 6 Anna Chakvetadze or 16-year-old Tamira Paszek of Austria – U.S. Open officials changed things up. They shifted the quarterfinal between Venus Williams and No. 3 Jelena Jankovic from today to Wednesday night. Kuznetsova beat Victoria Azarenka, 6-2, 6-3, Szavay beat Julia Vakulenko, 6-4, 7-6 (1), and Peer became the first Israeli woman to reach the U.S. Open quarterfinals by eliminating No. 30 Agnieszka Radwanska, 6-4, 6-1.