Americans of various stripes win at UCLA

You might say the present-day version of U.S. tennis was on display Thursday at UCLA, in the safe, conventional hands of wild-card entrant Zack Fleishman and the unconventional Vince Spadea, who was celebrating his 33rd birthday.

Fleishman and Spadea were the first two Americans to reach today’s quarterfinals at the Countrywide Classic, and were joined by a third, second-seeded James Blake, who defeated Paul Goldstein, 6-0, 1-6, 7-5, Thursday night.

“I’ve been around for so long that I might be in the record books for being the longest, weirdest, most pathetic great player ever,” said Spadea, who defeated last year’s finalist, fifth-seeded Dmitry Tursunov, 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-3, in 2 hours 18 minutes in the second round.

“Look at how precocious I am at 33.”

Then there was that young pup Fleishman, a 27-year-old Southern California native who played one year for UCLA and lives in Hermosa Beach. Fleishman’s magic tennis ride here continued with a victory over Robert Kendrick, 7-6 (4), 6-3.

More impressively, Fleishman kept his focus, not an easy thing after Tuesday’s late-night emotional win over top-seeded Fernando Gonzalez. So often players falter in the next round after a significant upset, but now Fleishman will face Radek Stepanek in the quarterfinals. Stepanek beat wild card Mardy Fish, 6-2, 6-2, Thursday.

It was Fleishman’s first victory in four matches against Kendrick, though the previous three face-offs were at the challenger level.

Fleishman was delightfully self-deprecating, calling himself a “late bloomer.” He was even tougher on his shot-making ability of old, calling them “the worst strokes ... but I hated losing more than anyone else.”

Asked to describe his forehand at its lowest point, Fleishman said, “I give a lot of hope to the underprivileged people in the stroke department.”

Fleishman, unlike Spadea, can stay on message without breaking into a long-and-winding riff. The opening question to Spadea was about how he felt going into the match against Tursunov.

“I can do all things, man, if I believe it -- and somebody double faults at the right time,” Spadea said. “That was a great mental match for me. I’ve been working on my game a lot ... and it was a good win for me ... I forgot the question.”

In the quarterfinal match against Blake at 1:30 p.m. today, Spadea will have an opponent who also played three sets on Thursday.

Blake appeared well on his way to a cruise-control victory, but Goldstein came to life and Blake needed to save a match point before winning.

While the first two sets were quick and full of alternating dominance, the third set was a lengthy, back-and-forth battle that featured aggressive net play by Blake and brilliant strokes from the baseline by Goldstein.

“I let up just a tiny bit in the second set, and he took advantage and started taking it to me,” Blake said. “Then in the third, I really started moving my feet again. I played, I thought, pretty darn well. ... He made me work for everything.”

At 4-4 in the third, Goldstein saved two break points and, in the next game, had a chance to knock off the No. 9 player in the world.

But Blake saved the match point, won the game and then broke Goldstein to take a 6-5 lead.

lisa.dillman@latimes.com

ken.fowler@latimes.com

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Featured matches

Today at the Countrywide Classic being played at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on the UCLA campus:

STADIUM COURT

Starting at 1:30 p.m.

Vincent Spadea vs. James Blake, quarterfinals, 1:30 p.m., followed by Hyung-Taik Lee vs. Marat Safin, quarterfinals.

Starting at 7:30 p.m.

Bob Bryan-Mike Bryan vs. Amer Delic-Igor Kunitsyn, semifinals, 7:30 p.m., followed by Zack Fleishman vs. Radek Stepanek, quarterfinals.