* !Picby Pete Bodo*
WIMBLEDON, England—Sam Querrey, who's been ranked as high as No. 17, has been snakebit early in his career, but if there's an upside to having to his indispensible right arm nearly sliced off and then subjected to elbow surgery, it's been that he's had a chance to wipe his career slate clean and start again. That may be a great boon for a talented player who sometimes puzzled his peers and pundits the first time around with a perceived lack of intensity and ambition.
"It feels like. . . it's almost like I'm starting over again," Querrey said after the biggest win he's tacked up in a long time—a 6-7 (3), 7-6 (7), 7-6 (8), 6-4 triumph over No. 21 seed Milos Raonic. "I feel like I'm 19 years old, trying to climb my way back up the rankings."
This time, Querrey understands how difficult it can be to earn and hold a place near the top, and he played like it as he crafted a noteworthy upset of the 21-year old Canadian on a windy, bright day on No. 1 Court. Querrey and Raonic are both big men (at 6'6", Querrey has an inch on Raonic) with unusually flexible games that aren't at all yoked to the serve-and-volley mandate pursued by so many men of comparable height and power.
Today, both men bent like towering willows in the gale, adjusting and calibrating their games to the conditions as well as the ebb and flow of any given point. It was a pleasure to watch, and it offered us something like one of those "Bogo" (buy one, get one free) promotions. We got to see the expected battle of thunderbolts at the service notch, followed on many occasions by surprisingly long and artful rallies.
Given the nature of the serve on grass, though, the advantage the server held in this match was usually just too big to overcome. But in the tiebreakers, where each mini-break counts, the ability to get—and keep—the ball in play is at a premium. The men acquitted themselves well in those episodes, and in the end it was Querrey's superiority in that department that won him the match.
This was a continuation of a match that was left for dead in the dark last night, with the men locked up at a set apiece, 3-all in the third. When they resumed today, it was business as usual. Each man held serve until they arrived at the critical third-set tiebreaker, at which point each man had dropped serve just once in the entire match.
Raonic fell behind 0-4 in that third set 'breaker, but he battled back—if not quite far enough to prevent Querrey from arriving at set point at 6-4. No worries. Raonic dispatched it with an ace, then won a long rally to knock off a second set point. Querrey produced an ace to go up 7-6, but Raonic replied with a service winner. The next point was a long rally that contained a little bit of everything; it took Raonic three volleys to win it. The tables were turned, it was Raonic's set point now. But Querrey survived because Raonic drilled a backhand into the net to end a quality exchange. Querrey won the next two points to take it, 10-8. The significant detail: Only six of the 18 points were decided without the service return being put into play. With seven mini-breaks and five set points, you could be forgiven for assuming it was a tiebreaker played at the French Open between yeomen from Spain and Argentina.
Despondent, Raonic was unable to muster much resistance in the final set, while Querrey continued to play consistent, aggressive baseline tennis. In so doing, Querrey also demonstrated that if you can serve big, having a big return to go with it can provide you with a devastating one-two punch.
Let's not forget that Raonic has been singled out as a potential Wimbledon champion, is ranked No. 22 (compared to Querrey's No. 64), and his 27-9 record on the year is choc-a-bloc with straight-sets wins over almost everyone not named Roger Federer. In his match with Ivo Karlovic, Andy Murray showed how helpful it is to have both a big serve and a big return, and if you want a more rueful witness, just ask John Isner to outline the benefits of having a reliable reply. Like Isner, Raonic seems to be having trouble dealing with the expectations laid upon him at Wimbledon.
Querrey, because of his baseline-rooted game and the impact injuries have had on his visibility, has rarely been touted as a Wimbledon-ready talent, but at least one recent career-management decision may improve his chances as a contender. He's now getting coaching advice from Brad Gilbert, the former coach of Andy Roddick, Andre Agassi, and Andy Murray. When asked what Gilbert, who moonlights as an ESPN television commentator, has done for his game, Querrey said:
"We're just working on playing big. Hitting big first serves, big second serves, big forehands. I'm just trying to come at guys more. You know, that's the stuff we work on. Lots of just, you know, short ball, just boom, hit it. Hit it as hard as you can and keep coming."
Cultivating and sustaining that degree of aggression doesn't necessarily come naturally to Querrey, whose critics complain about his California-casual demeanor and lack of intensity. How could a youngster with such big-game potential wind up so wedded to the rally? A reporter politely asked Querrey if he thought he's a better competitor since returning from injury, to which he said: "No, but I hope I can keep playing and become a better one, but I haven't really noticed I'm a better one now."
But while he pleads ignorance on this theme, his intensity level is bound to rise a notch or two just by virtue of what he's experienced and learned about playing at the high level to which he again aspires. "After I missed Wimbledon through the U.S. Open (last year), I thought I was just going to come back and be right back where I left off playing?wise. You know, go deep in a couple tournaments and my ranking will move back quickly. It's just not the case, as I think most people would learn with a injury.
"(Maria) Sharapova is somewhat of an example. She was No. 1, and that's on kind of a larger scale than what I was doing, but it took her four years to return to No. 1 after some injuries and fall outs to come back. So it really is tough. But I think you can turn it around. You have to have patience and be positive, and the hard work will pay off eventual."
The price Querrey paid to learn the value of Sharapova-grade toughness and the value of bringing greater intensity to his game has been steep, but the payoff is getting bigger by the day.