DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (AP)—Qualifier Ryan Sweeting upset third-seeded Sam Querrey 7-6 (5), 6-4 in the second round of the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships on Wednesday.
The win over the 22nd-ranked Querrey—the highest ranked player the 118th-ranked Sweeting’s beaten—puts him into his first career ATP Tour quarterfinal.
“I feel like I’m playing good tennis,” Sweeting said. “I’m one of the Americans consistently moving up, maybe not at a fast rate, but it’s going in the right direction.”
Sweeting, serving at 5-4, rebounded from 0-40 to win the match on his second match point. He also had a match point on Querrey’s serve in the ninth game.
There was drama on the final point.
The umpire called Sweeting’s first serve a let, which was supported by the on-court service machine. If the powerful and well-placed serve didn’t nick the net it would clearly have been an untouchable ace—and Querrey, who gave the match his full effort despite a shoulder injury, decided to give the ace to Sweeting.
“I heard a let, but you know, it was a good serve,” Querrey said. “I had three other calls go my way that I probably didn’t agree with. I said, ‘You’re good, good serve.”’
Sweeting said Querrey is “a standup guy, he’s a real class guy on the court.”
The top four seeds in Delray Beach were all Americans: Andy Roddick, Mardy Fish, Sam Querrey and John Isner; only Fish remains in the draw.
Sweeting will face Kei Nishikori in the quarterfinals. The 2008 Delray Beach champion secured a 6-3, 6-4 win over American James Blake.
The last time Nishikori and Blake played was in the 2008 final, when Blake was the top seed and Nishikori the upstart qualifier posting the upset.
“It kind of came up to my mind when I was playing that three years ago we were playing in the final and it was a strange we were now playing in the second round,” said Nishikori, who needed only one service break in each set to win the match.
Sixth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic needed six match points before he closed out a 6-2, 6-7 (8) 6-3 win over Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia.
Tipsarevic had one match point at 8-7 in the second set tiebreaker, but hit a return wide off of Kavcic’s serve.
Kavcic, serving at 2-5 in the final set, saved three match points on his own service game before Tipsarevic finally took advantage of a second match point in the final game.