At the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship in Houston, Texas, over the weekend, Juan Ignacio Chela who is currently ranked #82 worldwide came out blazing and defeated Sam Querrey for his first win since 2007 and his fifth title. He won the $79,900 prize, with Querrey taking home the second place winnings of $42,000.
Chela hadn't had a tourney win since Acapulco 3 years ago, where he defeated Carlos Moya for the title. He wasn't seen as a threat or even necessarily as a contender in this tournament. He started the matches with a win that helped him feel more confidence, and with each win his confidence grew. As all of the highly seeded players were eliminated, Chela started to feel like he could win. He took out seeds 4 and 6 on his way to the last sets, which also helped gear him up for that final game.
This was Querrey's first trip to the finals in a clay court tournament. His game started to falter in the second set, so Chela took advantage of those lapses and pushed ahead. Though he was never really seen as a factor in this tournament, at least not until he started winning matches, Chela had the clear advantage as far as experience on clay. His career record on clay courts is 155 to 106. Clay is his favorite court surface. By comparison, Querrey is 10 to 18, so he's got far less time on clay and fewer winners by ratio.
Querrey is number 25 in the world, and said he needed to take more chances and hit the ball big when it was called for. He said that he took it too easy during the match. He also said that it's better to lose by being aggressive and hitting the ball long than to "baby around." A disappointed Querrey said that for some reason he was too scared to play the way he knew he should, and if he stays on that road he won't be able to take his game to the next level like he really wants to.
Chela said that Querrey was aggressive at first and had him on the defensive. Querrey won the first set and that caused Chela to rally and take charge because he knew he wouldn't have a shot at winning otherwise. Querrey's fatigue and Chela's growing aggressiveness is clear when you look at their serves. Querrey had 19 won serves in the first set while Chela managed only 2. After the second set, they were running even.
Everything seemed to shift during the 9th game when Querrey managed 4 errors in a row. He bounced back in game 10 with 2 aces, but also managed a double fault that cost him the first point. By the third set the men were tied at 3, after Querrey held on in set 2 despite 2 break points. Chela broke his opponent in game 8, after holding steady through 7, at love. By the last game, Querrey was almost completely shut out and managed to win only one point.
Photo Credits: mirsasha
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