For a third consecutive tournament, Sam Querrey has made it to a finals, but to get to the finals, he had to beat someone in the semifinals that was perhaps hotter than him, namely, Tommy Haas.

Haas has had quite the summer.  He pushed Federer to five sets at the French.  He beat Djokovic twice on grass and made his first Wimbledon semifinals.  All at the ripe old age of 31.

As the top seed in the tournament, Haas had to be considered the favorite to win it all, especially with a field that lacks many of game’s biggest names.  Haas beat Marat Safin yesterday, but looked shaky in the early parts of the win, though not nearly as shaky as Safin. Safin clearly had chances to win, but every time he’d forge ahead, Haas would break back.  Eventually that tenacity lead Haas to an easy second set win after a struggle in the first set that saw Safin fail to serve out the set.

Querrey has been on fire as of late.  He had, up to this point, made two finals in a row, though losing both.  Even so, for a player of his ranking, two finals in a row is huge progress.  He wasn’t expected to beat Haas, but it’s matches like this that a player like Querrey needs to win to move up.  He beat Haas, 6-4. 7-5.  Querrey broke late in the second set.

Haas showed tenacity in the next game, forcing Querrey to triple break point, 0-40.  This was a key moment to show whether Querrey was ready for the big time.  At this level, most people have great shots, but the mental fortitude to win games when you’re in trouble separate the very good from the great.  Querrey came back to deuce, then ad, and won the game.

Querrey has started to hit the ball harder off the ground and has attributed his success to running a lot, and working on up and down movement rather than side to side movement.  Querrey is a California boy, so his fans, the so-called Samurais (named after Sam) were in force cheering his every winner.

It’s natural to compare Querrey’s summer to the one del Potro had last year.  del Potro was the star of last year’s US Open Series, winning two clay court tournaments followed by Los Angeles (beating Roddick) and Washington (beating Troicki).  To be fair, del Potro actually won the tournaments.

In the finals he’s played, Querrey, so far, has played several players ranked below him, and lost both times.  In the International Hall of Fame Championships, he lost to Rajeev Ram.  Last week in Indianapolis, he lost to Robby Ginepri.  This week, after a huge win over Haas, he faces Carsten Ball, an Aussie, who he’s faced numerous times as a junior.  He’ll again be favored to win, although Ball is a lefty, and that may pose some interesting problems.

It will be key for Querrey to actually win one of these tournaments, which will double his tournament wins (from 1 to 2).  He’ll be eager to do break through this week, finally winning a tournament.  Querrey doesn’t look as good as del Potro, partly because del Potro won his matches last year and then used it as a springboard, but this win is good for Querrey who is trying to move up the ranks from roughly 30 or so, up to the teens.

In the past, Querrey looked like he didn’t have great movement, and his groundstrokes, while solid, were nothing outstanding.  In this match, Querrey struck the tennis ball very hard, at times, harder than Haas, and showed a good deal of consistency and solid movement.  He credits his movement with his recent success.  His goal, so far, has been to play as many tournaments as he can, though based on how well he does the rest of the summer, he hinted he might not play New Haven, the week before the US Open.

Another player that is making a bit of a comeback is Nikolay Davydenko.  He beat Jurgen Melzer easily in Umag, and will now face former world number 1, Juan Carlos Ferrero in the finals of the clay court event.

Is Querrey the next del Potro?  Probably not.  del Potro caught lightning in a bottle.  Still, Querrey’s newfound consistency hopefully bodes well.  He could see himself move up into the teens and may have the game to play around 10 or so.  It’s nice to see improvement in a game that I thought might lack upward potential.

Up next for Querrey is Carsten Ball.  They haven’t played since the juniors and Querrey won their last matchup back in 2006. It’s safe to say both players have made big strides to get this far.  This is Ball’s first ATP final.  It ought to give Querrey a lot of confidence to play a familiar face.  Despite both players having improved their games immensely, even a good head-to-head from the juniors can play into a person’s head.  Chang beat Sampras early in Sampras’ s career, based on the confidence Chang had over Sampras from their junior days.  Can Querrey finally win one?  Watch today and find out.