Sam Querrey’s best win against a top player was against Andy Roddick.  Querrey beat Roddick in Cincinnati last year and beat Roddick in Memphis this year.  By contrast, Querrey had never won a set against Andy Murray.  Murray accepted a wildcard to play LA when Novak Djokovic decided to pull out at the last minute for personal reasons.

Querrey’s road to the final was not exactly easy.  Querrey beat Rainer Schuettler in 3 sets 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), and was apparently down a break in the third set.  He then beat Janko Tipsarevic 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.  This match had Querrey down 5-1 in the second set tiebreak before reeling off 6 straight points.  Querrey was down an early break in the third, was down 0-40 on his serve after breaking back and was again down break points in his following service game.  Querrey managed to pull a Houdini and get out of his service games with holds and then break Tipsarevic late in the third set.

Querrey’s start looked like it might be better against Murray when he broke Murray early on.  However, Murray eventually broke back twice to take the set, 7-5.  Unlike his match against Feliciano Lopez where Murray hit a lot of slice backhands, he hit mostly topspin backhands against Querrey.  Querrey’s basic strategy was simple: outhit Murray.  This has been Querrey’s standard play lately against any player.  Hit the big serves, then use the big forehands to win points.  Querrey has become both steady enough on normal rallies and powerful enough to hit more than one hard shot in a row.

This is important because Murray’s speed makes you work.  You have to hit multiple shots to beat Murray since he’s so quick.  Murray opted to go for fewer big shots but make fewer errors, but it meant he had to do a lot of running.  In his first tournament since parting with Miles Maclagan, Murray seemed to go to his drop shot a lot more than he has in the past, as if he felt handcuffs playing the style he wanted to play.  Throughout the tournament, Murray hit far more drop shots than he normally does, some working well, some less effective.

Murray had a match point on Querrey’s serve late in the second set, but Querrey fought that off, then got the match into a tiebreak, which he won 9 points to 7.  Finally, Querrey got a break in the third set and took the match, 6-3, winning his fourth title of the year to go with his titles in Memphis, Belgrade, and Queen’s.  However, this is his biggest win yet.  Querrey has beaten Americans in all 3 of those finals (twice against Isner and once against Mardy Fish).

Querrey’s titles have come against native English speakers.  In addition to his victory over Andy Murray, he won Los Angeles last year (so he’s become the first person to repeat at LA since Agassi did it at about 10 years ago) over Carsten Ball of Australia and beat Kevin Anderson of South Africa in Las Vegas two years ago.

Unlike last year when Querrey opted to play every tournament in the US Open Series and play Newport on grass, Querrey has cut back his schedule this year, presumably because his ranking is much better and now he’s going deeper in tournaments (though this record of going deep in tournaments started at last year’s US Open series including being a finalist at Newport, Indianapolis, and New Haven, in addition to winning LA).

Querrey decided not to play Atlanta this year, while Isner did play.  Both will appear in Washington DC this week and will play doubles together for the first time since (in theory) Wimbledon.

Ultimately, Murray was unable to handle Querrey’s power off the ground and that kept this match closer than in matches past when Murray’s ground game was superior to Querrey.  This was Murray’s first tournament since Wimbledon, and he did seem somewhat rusty going to three sets in Smyczek (who?) in his first match as well as Feliciano Lopez (especially after winning the first set, 6-0).  Murray tried to keep his first percentage high by going for less on his first serve.  This kept him at around 70% which is much higher than he normally serves (usually low 50%).

Sam Querrey will now have to do better in bigger tournaments.  He’s not done well in Masters 1000 events.  Washington DC is a ATP 500 event which is a step above the ATP 250 events he’s been excelling at.  Indeed, Querrey has won 4 ATP 250 events and can’t really do much more because a win at an ATP 250 event replaces a prior win at an ATP 250 event.  He needs to go deeper in Masters 1000 and ATP 500 events, and of course, Slams.

Meanwhile, Querrey continues to win and that has to help his confidence, especially when he seemed on the verge of exiting this tournament multiple times.  Murray, meanwhile, has to regroup, and figure out where his game is, especially given his coaching situation.