CED33132-3422-4DFC-BE19-7723513C2372
By Alberto Amalfi
© Natasha Peterson/Corleve
(August 1, 2010) Sam Querrey conceded to competitive capitulation after falling in the French Open first round. There was no quit in Querrey in Los Angeles this week. The second-seeded Querrey fought off a match point for the second straight match to successfully defend his Farmers Classic championship with a 5-7, 7-6(7) over top-seeded Andy Murray in the LA final at the LA Tennis Center at UCLA.
"This feels great," Querrey said. "This is maybe the best I've ever felt. I'm really happy, really ecstatic. Hopefully it will be a great start to the summer. The more matches you win and titles you win, I think guys start to respect you more and fear you more so hopefully that's the case."
The 20th-ranked Californian is the first man to repeat in consecutive years in Los Angeles since Andre Agassi in 2001-02.
"This is the first time that I've actually tried to defend a title because the Vegas tournament went away," Querrey said. "The last two sets today were great, Andy is one of those players who allows me to hit my shots."
For the first time in the 84-year history of the tournament, both the singles and doubles champions were successful in defending their titles as twins Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan won their Open Era record 62nd doubles championship.
It was Querrey's fourth tournament title of the season following victories in Memphis, Belgrade and at Queen's Club. Querrey is second to World No. 1 Rafael Nadal for most tournament titles this season (Nadal has five titles to his credit) and is the only man on the ATP to win championships on three different surfaces.
The final marked the first time since 1999 the top two seeds met in the LA Final. Murray carried a 4-0 career record against Querrey into the title match and had not dropped a set in those four matches, but was denied his bid to win his first title of the season. The Australian Open runner-up has not won a championship since Valencia last November.
"It was a good week. Disappointed to lose today but if you take the circumstances into consideration I have to be happy with getting to the final. I had a good week, I enjoyed it.," Murray said. "Each match I felt better physically. I played reasonably well today, better than the other matches."
Querrey saved a championship point at 30-40 when trailing 4-5 in the second set against Murray.
In Saturday's semifinal, Querrey saved a match point in the 10th game of the second set then battled back from a 1-5 deficit in the second-set tiebreaker to earn a 6-7(7), 7-6(7), 6-4 victory over Janko Tipsarevic. Querrey is the first player since Spaniard Albert Montanes in Estoril in April 2009 to win two matches from match point down in the same tournament. Montanes saved two match points in the final against James Blake and one match point in the quarterfinals against Gilles Simon.
The 22-year-old Santa Monica resident, who saved one match point in the final of Belgrade in May when he beat doubles partner John Isner, is also the first player to win at least two ATP World Tour titles saving match point in the same season since Andy Roddick did it three times in 2003 (Queen's, Cincinnati, US Open).
Querrey earned the lone break of the final set and did not look back. He won 16 of 18 points played on his first serve in the final set.
"Winning definitely gives you a lot of confidence, whether it's professional or in the juniors or in the collegiate," Querrey said. "The more you win, the better you're playing and the more confidence you have. I definitely think this will help me win some bigger matches going forward."