Sam Querrey has won one title in his career, the Tennis Channel Open. Here he is pictured accepting his trophy over runner-up Kevin Anderson (supporting the Illini, his alma mater).

Querrey is the fourth ranked American player behind Andy Roddick, James Blake, and Mardy Fish. Ranked 47th in the world, he is only one spot behind Israeli, Dudi Sela.

Querrey has occasionally pushed top players, taking the occasional set from Rafael Nadal, but not yet beating a few of the really big players.

Today was an opportunity for Sam. He faced 11th seeded, Marin Cilic. It’s probably rare for the 6’6″ Querrey to meet players his height, though the number of tall players are quite numerous. They include Ivo Karlovic, John Isner, Kevin Anderson, Marin Cilic, Juan Martin del Potro. Once upon a time, it was rare to see a tall player that played the baseline. If you were tall, you were considered lumbering, and needed to come to net to prevent jackrabbit players from beating you.

Perhaps Todd Martin was the first to really break that mold. Here was a guy also 6’6″ that played from the baseline. Sure, he also served and volleyed, as did fellow American Pete Sampras, but he had enough game to slug it from the baseline too. Prior to that, 6’4″, Yannick Noah would mix it up, coming to net as well as playing from the baseline.

On a day like today, when Querrey pushed Cilic to a fifth set, you begin to realize a lot of tennis is mental. When people look at a player like Roger Federer, they marvel at the grace of his movement, the ferocity of his forehand, the squash shots he hits to save points, the deftness of his drop shots. There’s no doubt Federer has a lot of physical attributes that lead to a successful game.

But time and again, Federer has shown a mental tenacity to win points even when he is struggling. Some of that has to do with adjustments he makes in his game as he reacts to what his opponent is doing well. These are tactical changes. But sometimes, it’s a matter of going for shots even when they aren’t all dropping in. In the French Open, there was a key point, 30-40 in the third set. If Federer loses that point, he goes a break down, and he’s already down two sets to love.

Nadal shows an incredible mental tenacity. He hits big shots when he needs to. In one of the best played matches of the year, Nadal was fighting Djokovic in the Madrid semifinals. Even match point down, he was able to dig deep and hit huge shots when it mattered.

These mental struggles don’t only occur at the very top of the game. They occur in many matches. If you ever look at the age of the lesser known players playing in the Grand Slam, they are generally much older than you’d imagine. The ATP Tour is not filled with 19 year old wunderkinds. Despite the proliferation of players like Murray, Nadal, Cilic, and del Potro, more likely, you’ll find players that are closer in age to Federer.

These older players, which in any real life job would be considered young, have been on the tour for many years, and they’ve dealt with many situations. They know how to cope. Younger players haven’t had as much experience. So a player like Querrey may struggle against players that are veterans that he should beat if he expects to take the next step up.

He might take solace in players like James Blake and Mardy Fish who were late bloomers, players that didn’t have fantastic junior careers, but honed their games over many years, filling holes in their games.

Even so, here was an opportunity for Querrey to make a breakthough. While Cilic isn’t top ten, he’s close enough, and with Mario Ancic not playing Wimbledon, Cilic has been pegged as a dark horse favorite. In the end, Querrey didn’t have enough, and lost 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-4. Marat Safin, another tall player, has pointed out that winning begets winning. Safin says he feels as physically fit now as he’s ever been, but the victories aren’t coming.

Occasionally, however, two players meet, and for some reason, one player’s strengths are overwhelming, even though the two players are similar in ranking. So it was today with Dudi Sela and last year’s semifinalist, Rainer Scheuttler. On paper, you might give the edge to Scheuttler. He’s experienced. He’s reached the Australian Open final before. But in the only two meetings they’ve had, Sela has won both, and often with lopsided set scores.

Last year in Beijing, Sela won 6-3, 6-3. This year at the Australian Open, he won 1-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4.

Some quick updates. Roger Federer had little problems beating Garcia-Lopez who made the semis of Eastbourne last week. He won in straight sets. Tommy Haas had an easier time when Michael Llodra retired. Djokovic, who has been flying under the radar, a place he happens to enjoy, also won in straight sets.

Djokovic will now face Mardy Fish in the third round. Fish beat a Serbian in Janko Tipsarevic, in four sets. They’ve only met twice, but Djokovic has prevailed both times. By the way, it’s worth reading Mardy Fish’s inteviews (see here). He has more interesting things to say then, say, Roger Federer, who always seems a bit catty with the press, as if he’s vaguely annoyed with their questions.

A quintet of Spaniards had tough wins. Verdasco played three tiebreak sets, plus a 6-4 to win over unheralded Vliegen of Belgium. Robredo needed five sets to win over Koubek of Austria. Almagro needed five sets to beat Karol Beck, a lucky loser who beat Feliciano Lopez in the first round. The fifth set went 7-5. Gimeno-Traver also took five sets to beat American, Taylor Dent. Montanes had a four set win over Canas.

Not ever Spaniard won today (and there are many of them playing). French Open finalist, Robin Soderling, struggled a bit to a four set win over Granollers.

Kohlschreiber (who beat Djokovic at the French) needed five sets and 8-6 in the fifth to beat Czech, Ivo Minar. Andreev however won in straight sets over Spadea. Karlovic also won in straight sets; his victory was over Darcis. Tsonga got a gift. He won in a walkover over Italian Simone Bolleli.

A couple of very interesting matches on slate for tomorrow. del Potro plays Hewitt. Hewitt says he’s feeling pretty good after having to deal with surgery from last year. He’s been feeling good since about the French Open. Murray plays Gulbis. Gulbis, much like Murray, had been on a fitness/training regime. He felt the work he had put in to become stronger had affected the consistency of his game, but that his game is coming around, and improving a lot. In Americans sports, this is considered a “trap” match, because Gulbis hasn’t been playing well but is capable of hitting very well. Murray has beaten Gulbis twice.

Is Leonardo Mayer for real? He plays fellow South American, Fernando Gonzalez.

Finally, is there more magic for the magic man? Fabrice Santoro plays former number 1, Juan Carlos Ferrero.