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Q School: Sam Querrey Plays Hard Ball With Bradley Klahn
By Joe McDonald
(September 1, 2010) Bradley Klahn learned a few lessons today and the first one is Sam Querrey plays hard ball. Maybe it comes from his love of his hometown Los Angeles Dodgers, or maybe it’s just the only thing he knows.
One thing’s for certain, though, Klahn learned that the hard way during the first set of his US Open first-round match, when Klahn took a shot right to….well you know.
"That was an accident," Querrey said. "I mean, he hit a dropshot, and I ran up there and it was kind of better than I thought. So I kind of got a little confused where I was going to hit it. I kind of went at him. I didn't mean to hit it there. I felt bad because he's my buddy."
What the 23 year-old LA Open Champion didn’t feel bad about was the result, a 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 6-4 win over the his practice partner and Stanford junior, who is just learning the play with the professionals after winning the NCAA singles championship.
"You definitely have to learn," Querrey said. "I remember the first time I played Roger (Federer) when I was 18. I went out there knowing I was gonna lose. I was 18. He was like amazing. It was in Miami. It was a night match. I didn't know I was going to lose, but I assumed I was gonna lose. First time, I don't want to embarrass myself out there.
"But the more that I played, you know, Roger and Rafa and Andy and practiced with them, you know, you take the occasional set off them in practice and take a set here or two in the match and you beat a top 10 guy, then you kind of start to get the belief."
Often, it takes a win over a highly-ranked player to instill the self-belief in young players necessary to compete at the highest level.
“I beat Roddick next last year who was ranked No. 7," Querrey said. "When you see him beat these guys, it kind of gives you the belief that you could beat these guys too. It definitely takes a couple of years to get used to, you know, practicing with them, playing with them, and, you know, then you can beat them."
So consider that Lesson No. 2 for Klahn and Lesson No. 3 is keeping up with the heat. With temperatures in the mid-90s today, Querrey said he was definitely feeling it, as was Klahn, especially in the fourth set where the No. 20 seed was up 5-2, but Klahn came back, because the more experienced player was starting to cramp up.
"If he would have won that set, that have been an entertaining fifth set," Querrey said. "I mean, he was cramping worse than I was. I don't know what that would have been in the fifth set. Just serve and one shot."
Querrey said he felt he didn’t hydrate himself properly before today’s match, which could be why he cramped up. He also said that the weather today was no worse than the Legg Mason tournament earlier this month. In fact, he is against any rule changes that will allow for weather breaks.
"We talked about that in the council meeting the other day, whether or not they should close the roof if it gets to be, you know, over a certain temperature," Querrey said. "I think, you know, tennis is a physical sport. You should be rewarded with the hard work you put in. If the heat is too much for some guys, you know, if you're the more fit player, you shouldn't get penalized for that. I don't think so."
Joe McDonald is the publisher of TennisLedger.com where this article originated.
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