By Steven Wine

BEIJING — James Blake deserved some kind of medal for the back-to-the-net, between-the-legs forehand he hit Friday.

He should have saved it for match point.

Blake came up one shot short in his bid to reach the Olympic final, losing to Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 4-6, 7-5, 11-9.

Blake was unable to convert three match points after Gonzalez fell behind 5-6, love-40 serving in the final set. At 10-9 it was Gonzalez who struggled to convert match points, but on the fifth one he smacked a service winner for the victory.

The No. 8-seeded Blake, a first-time Olympian at 28, still has a shot at the bronze as the last hope for a U.S. medal in singles.

After beating Roger Federer on Thursday, Blake showed no sign of an upset hangover. He served well against Gonzalez, winning 15 consecutive service points at one stretch, and repeatedly negated the big-swinging Chilean’s forehand by pinning him deep in baseline rallies.

Blake even pulled off a nifty trick shot, retreating to retrieve a lob and bravely swatting the ball between his legs. Gonzalez was so startled he dumped an easy forehand into the net.

Three times in the second set, Blake was two points from victory. But the best opportunity came in the third set, when he went for a winner on his first match point and sailed a forehand long.

Gonzalez then hit four winners in a row to hold for 6-all, and eight games later he was thrusting his arms to sky after clinching a medal. Four years ago in Athens, he and Nicolas Massu won the doubles for Chile’s first gold medal in any sport.

Seeded 12th, Gonzalez will play in Sunday’s final against the winner of the later match between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

Federer kept alive a bid for the first medal of his career by winning a rain-interrupted doubles match with Swiss partner Stanislas Wawrinka. They advanced to a semifinal match later Friday against top-seeded Mike and Bob Bryan of the United States by beating Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes of India 6-2, 6-4.

Venus and Serena Williams, both eliminated in singles Thursday, completed a suspended second-round doubles match and beat Ayumi Morita and Ai Sugiyama of Japan, 7-5, 6-2.

The two doubles matches were suspended at 1:15 a.m. because of rain and resumed 15 hours later.