This was the kind of match Sam Querrey used to lose.  He’d play close against a top 30-ish player and if it got tight, his chances of losing were about the same as it was to win.  Sam knew that he had to get through the majority of these matches.  Janko Tipsarevic is one of those steady players without any huge weapons.   If he gets enough of your serves back, then you can be in for a long day.

But Querrey has made a recent habit of winning these close matches–all the more impressive considering the bombshell of a press conference he gave shortly after he lost in the first round of the French to Robby Ginepri.  Querrey made a quick turnaround, coming back to Queen’s, and won the title when seeds like Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal failed to make the semifinals.

Yesterday, Querrey played a tough three-setter to beat Rainer Schuettler.  Today, Tipsarevic looked like he’d take the tall Californian out in two tiebreaks.  In the second set tiebreak, Tipsarevic raced to a 5-1 lead.  Querrey held his serve to 5-2, then played two excellent points to get both mini-breaks back and reach 5-4 down.  He took two points to get to 6-5, then took the last point to end the tiebreak in a flurry of points.  Tipsarevic, angry that he let the tiebreak go, broke his racquet, apparently doing the same thing Querrey did yesterday.

Things looked good for Tipsarevic again when he got an early break, but then Querrey got that break back right away.  Then, Querrey looked like he might lose his serve again, going down 0-40, but managed to win that game.  Querrey again looked shaky in his next game facing break points, but again, escaped.  Finally, at 6-5, with Tipsarevic hoping to get to another tiebreak, Querrey played good solid steady tennis and Tipsarevic made an error to give the match to Querrey.

The other semifinal will be played later this evening.  He’ll play the crafty Spanish veteran, Feliciano Lopez.  Lopez had to dig himself out of a hole yesterday when he was down a set to Blake and down early in the tiebreak in the second set.  However, he came back to win that set, then broke early in the third and held the break until he won the match.

Meanwhile, across the pond, there are two clay court events being played.  In Gstaad, Nicolas Almagro beat fellow Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver in three sets: 7-6 (9-7), 3-6, 6-3.  Meanwhile, Richard Gasquet, who has been trying to get his game on track, beat Yuri Schukin 6-3, 6-4.

In Umag, Juan Carlos Ferrero had an easy win over Anderas Seppi, 6-4, 6-2 while Potito Starace beat Juan Ignacio Chela 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 6-2.

Like LA, these four matches were semifinal play.  Next week, play will head to Washington DC for the Legg Mason Classic.  There will be no clay events held from now until the US Open.