Posted at 11:21 a.m., Saturday, July 28, 2007
Tennis: Defending champ Blake ousted at Indianapolis
Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS — Sam Querrey fired a career-high 34 aces, including nine in a row in the second set, to eliminate defending champion James Blake 7-6 (6), 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4) in a rain-delayed quarterfinal today at the Indianapolis Tennis Championships.Querrey, an unseeded 19-year-old, advanced to the semifinals for the first time in his first full season on the ATP tour.
After serving up the most aces in a three-set ATP tour match this season, he was set to play third-ranked Dmitry Tursunov of Russia in a semifinal later Saturday. Tursunov defeated Kei Nishikori of Japan 6-1, 6-4, in the other postponed quarterfinal match.
Querrey relied on accuracy rather than speed, often serving just over 100 mph.
"Just one of those days where I was in a zone serving, and it definitely paid off there at the end," he said.
Querrey survived a spectacular effort by the second-seeded Blake in the third-set tiebreaker. Querrey aced his way to leads of 4-1 and 6-3 before Blake made a diving save to cut the lead to two points. But Querrey finished the match with an overhead slam at the net.
Tursunov said the scores of his match with Nishikori were deceiving.
"He's a much better player than I was expecting," he said. "In the second set, he was up 4-1 and serving at break point. So it could have been 6-1 and then headed in the other direction."
