Blake wins in Houston, fourth seed Querrey exits

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Top seed James Blake eased into the U.S. Clay Court Championships second round but fellow American Sam Querrey, the fourth seed, made an early exit on Wednesday.

Blake, the world number nine, beat Japanese wildcard Kei Nishikori 6-4 6-4 in an evening match to set up a meeting with 15-year-old American Ryan Harrison on Thursday.

Harrison had stunned Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas 6-4 6-3 in Monday's first round to join Spaniard Rafael Nadal and Frenchman Richard Gasquet as the only players since 1990 to win ATP matches under the age of 16.

Blake was delighted to avenge his defeat by teenager Nishikori in this year's Delray Beach final.

"It definitely feels good any time you can avenge a loss," Blake told reporters. "He's an excellent player and at 18 years old he's got a huge learning curve and will continue to get better."

Big-serving Querrey squandered a 2-0 lead in the decisive set before losing 5-7 6-4 6-4 to Chilean Nicolas Massu in a tight contest lasting two hours, 48 minutes.

Massu, making his third appearance at an event where he reached the final on his debut in 2000, broke back twice in the third set to secure victory.

TOUGH MATCH

"I played well and it could have gone either way," Querrey, 20, said. "It was a tough match. I didn't serve my best but, other than that, it was pretty good.

"I'm not too disappointed," added the towering American who clinched his first ATP title at last month's Las Vegas Open.

Massu, 28, next faces Brazil's Marcos Daniel, a 6-3 6-4 winner over Serb Viktor Troicki.

Third-seeded Mardy Fish crushed fellow American Hugo Armando 6-3 6-2 to reach the third round.

In other first-round matches, Australia's Peter Luczak beat qualifier Harel Levy of Israel 6-4 6-4 and Chilean Paul Capdeville brushed aside Argentina's Diego Hartfield 6-0 6-4.

Eighth-seeded Spaniard Oscar Hernandez scraped past American Donald Young 6-4 6-4 in a second-round clash.

(Writing by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Ed Osmond)