Sam Querrey defeated John Isner on Sunday in Memphis, Tennessee, to win the Morgan Keenan Championship, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5), 6-3. That's an impressive win for a player who just 4 months ago thought an accident may have ended his tennis career. In October, Querrey fell on a glass coffee table in Bangkok, shattering the glass and sustaining a deep cut into his forearm muscle. The wound took 25 stitches, and left a scar of about 2-inches once it healed. A few centimeters more would have damaged his muscle control to the degree that doctors told him his tennis career would have been over.
But after rest and rehabilitation, Querrey got his arm back into playing shape and with this win has moved from his #31 world ranking, to the high 20s in what's surely just the start of his rise toward the top.
To make that win Querrey had to beat Andy Roddick in Friday's finals. And then he had to defeat Isner, who's not only his best friend and running partner, but his partner in doubles matches and a fellow member of the Davis Cup team that will play together in March in Serbia. The friends even had dinner together the night before, and warmed up together that morning as is their routine. But they battled it out with everything they had on the court. It was the first time they'd faced each other in match play.
The two friends are both tall, making theirs the tallest final ATP match ever. Isner stands an astounding 6' 9", while Querrey comes in a few inches lower at a still incredibly tall 6' 6". The match wasn't Querrey's to win easily, as each player matched the other for most of the play. Querrey was trailing by 3 points in the 2nd tiebreaker but pulled it together. Then 2 points from losing, he won 5 in a row, and broke his opponent twice in the final set.
Querrey felt the pressure of 3 break points early into the competition, with 2 of them in the first set alone. And trailing by 5-2 because of an error in the second, the ball bounced from his racket's edge on a return and flew wide, meant Isner had opportunities to pull out the win himself. But Querrey got an ace and shortened Casey's advantage to 2, and within 2 more points the score was 5-all. This led to some of the best tennis action of the day as the players sent the ball back and forth, both trying to find a weakness in the other.
A factor in the play could have been that Querrey's percentage of good serves went up as the competition wore on, from less than 50% in the beginning to a high of 73% in the third set, while Isner's percentage began with a whopping 78% and dropped to 48% by the third set.
Querrey and Isner went on to their doubles match that evening and won together against Jordan Kerr and Ross Hutchins, 6-4, 6-4. This singles victory is Querrey's first this year, and his third career win.
Photo Credits: James Marvin Phelps (mandj98)
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