Most American tennis fans could have been forgiven for not expecting Sam Querrey to make the semi-finals at Wimbledon this year. Most probably wouldn’t have expected him to emulate last year’s excellent run to the quarter-finals.
The United States has had only four men reach six quarter-finals since Andy Roddick represented US men’s tennis in the 2009 Wimbledon final. They were Roddick (Australian Open 2010, US Open 2011,) Mardy Fish (Wimbledon 2010,) John Isner (US Open 2011,) and Querrey himself (Wimbledon 2016, semi-finals Wimbledon 2017.)
With the current generation of American players already into, or moving towards their thirties it would have appeared that the best parts of their careers had passed. Yet Querrey, 29, broke new ground at a grand slam, becoming the first American since Roddick’s Wimbledon 2009 run to reach a semi.
Querrey has done so the hard way. He defeated Thomas Fabbiano and Nikoloz Basilashvili for the loss of just one set between them. He then gained a measure of revenge over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, beating the Frenchman in five sets over two days. Tsonga had beaten Querrey in almost the exact same circumstances three years ago. Despite Tsonga being ranked higher than Querrey, the win was not unsurprising given Tsonga’s poor form this season.
Querrey then defeated the unseeded Kevin Anderson. Anderson is a former Top 10 player making big strides towards the Top 30 again after injury. Again the match required five sets.
Querrey then defeated the reigning champion and World no.1 for the second year in a row. In 2016 he stunned 2015 winner Novak Djokovic with a four set win in the third round.
Such a run of form for Querrey is not without precedence. He won the Acapulco 500 earlier this season, defeating the likes of David Goffin, Dominic Thiem, Nick Kyrgios, and Rafael Nadal for the loss of just one set. Yet for Querrey to do it at a grand slam is a step up in consistency and peformance.
His coach Criag Bonyton: “Sam’s been playing great all year, he really has. Just competing very well, he’s getting off bad moments really well, and you saw today, he kind of went through a patch, but he just stayed the course, stayed with his game plan. He believes in himself and he’s an unbelievably great tennis player when all those things come together.”
Bonyton also identified technical improvements that he believes has contributed to Querrey’s excellent results this season: “Today he’s rebuilt it [the backhand] into a more reliable shot. It gives him more momentum through the swing, It was a little bit linear, a little flat on the take back prior. Now he hits it safer. There’s more rotation.”
The backhand was in evidence against Murray, as Querrey twice hit big cross-court backhand winners to break Murray’s serve.
Querrey will face Marin Cilic in a battle of two first-time Wimbledon semi-finalists on Monday, with the prize on offer a first Wimbledon final for the winner. Cilic leads the head-to-head with Querrey 4-0, including a 17-15 win in the fifth set in 2012 that is the second longest match in Wimbledon history. The pair also played another five set marathon at Wimbledon in 2009.
Querrey has already won three five-set matches at this year’s Championships. Though they went the distance, the time on the clock has been relatively short due to Querrey’s style. His match with Murray lasted under three and a half hours. Cilic’s form on the grass this year has been immense, but his form at the start of the year was seriously poor, and Gilles Muller’s game nearly yielded huge dividends for the Luxembourger, taking the first two sets that Cilic has lost in this year’s tournament.
Many most have thought that this group of Americans were on the way out, to be replaced by the likes of Taylor Fritz, Jared Donaldson, Frances Tiafoe, and Reilly Opelka. Querrey is proving that far from fading into obscurity, he still is very much at the forefront of this generation. The NextGen can wait.
