AEGON Champs: Querrey, Fish into final
Originally published on: 12/06/10 17:10
Sam Querrey settled a score at Queens on Saturday, defeating Rainer Schuettler 6-7(9) 7-5 6-3 to reach the second grass court final of his career at the AEGON Championships.
Thirty-four-year-old Schuettler had knocked Querrey out of the Australian Open at the first hurdle in January, and though he claimed the opening set in their Queens semi, 6ft6 Querrey hit back to erase memories of his first round defeat in Melbourne.
It was the second time this tournament that the American had avenged a 2010 Grand Slam defeat, having beaten compatriot Robby Ginepri – who denied him a career-first spot in round two at Roland Garros – en route to the last four.
“It was a tough one out there and I’m glad to get through it,” said the 22-year-old after seeing off the former Wimbledon semi-finalist.
“I just wanted to come out here and play well, you can’t really control the outcome of other matches, but I’ve never seen so many upsets as this week.”
In the absence of five of the world’s top ten – Nadal, Djokovic, Murray, Roddick and Cilic, who all bowed out of the tournament before the semi-finals – Querrey will face fellow American Mardy Fish in tomorrow’s final after the world No.90 continued his rich vein of form to see off Feliciano Lopez 6-3 6-4.
Querrey and Fish share the same coach (David Nainkin) and often practice together, but they’ve met just once on tour – Fish won their only encounter in Los Angeles in straight sets in 2007.
And Fish, who hasn’t picked up a title since Delray Beach in February 2009, will hope his chances of another victory over Querrey are more likely than his world cup predicitions…
In a clear attempt to keep the British crowd on-side after being booed off court amid the controversies of his third round clash with Andy Murray on Thursday evening, a grinning Fish predicted of tonight’s England v USA clash: “I think the US scores two goals, and England score… 7 goals.”
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