Sam Querret

Sam Querrey has been on a bit of a roll lately.  Right after Wimbledon, he played in the International Hall of Fame where he made the finals, but lost to fellow American, Rajeev Ram.  Last week, he played at Indianapolis where he made the finals again, and where he lost to another fellow American, Robby Ginepri.  Although he hasn’t been winning titles, making the finals still improves his ranking.

This week Querrey is playing in Los Angeles.  This is the second tournament in a row that the defending champion declined to defend.  Juan Martin del Potro beat Andy Roddick to win Los Angeles last year.  Neither are in the tournament.  Roddick is out due to an injury sustained sometime around Wimbledon.  Last week, Gilles Simon declined to defend Indianapolis and went to Hamburg instead.  Simon has been having a very poor 2009, by his second-half 2008 standards.  The reason his rankings haven’t plummeted is because he played well on hard courts and indoors last year, points he’ll have to defend.

Querrey beat Ryan Sweeting in three sets, and is slated to play Dudi Sela.  Sela has been playing quite well as of late.  He reached the round of 16 at Wimbledon and has been a stalwart for Israel in Davis Cup play.

In an evening match, Mardy Fish overcame a big-serving lefty Aussie in Chris Guccione.  He won 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (14-12), 6-4.  He faces up and coming Argentine, Leonardo Mayer.  Tommy Haas, the top seed, will play Marat Safin, the eighth seed, in the most anticipated match of the day.  John Isner will play Aussie, Carsten Beel, in the final quarterfinals match.

Despite the build up to the US Open, there are two clay court events being played.  Gstaad in Sweden.  Top seeded Stan Wawrinka lost to Italian Thomaz Bellucci.  Umag in Croatia.  Davydenko is the top seed, and he is still in the tournament, playing quarterfinal opponent, Simone Bolleli.