After spending weeks in Europe doing the clay court thing, Sam Querrey had had enough.  Many players may have experienced what Sam experienced, but few show the bravery (or stupidity, as some may call it) to tell the world that he didn’t want to be on the court.  He had just come off a loss to Robby Ginepri whose only win at a ATP tour-level event was an upset of Robin Soderling in Chennai in January.  Ginepri had had some success on the Challengers and even registered a win over Querrey in the finals of Indianapolis last year, but even a down Querrey should probably have played closer.

No one knew when Querrey would return.  One hoped that a few days in the California sun with friends and family would be enough, and he’d return to play at Queen’s where his big serve would lead to shorter points and perhaps tax his soul far less than the demanding clay.

It seems grass was just what the doctor ordered.

Rainer Schuettler is a cagey veteran from Germany.  He’s been in the Australian Open finals, though it’s been many years since that high (2003).  Indeed, 2003 was one of Schuettler’s best year.  The closest he came to reaching the heights of that year was in 2008 when he had a dream draw and played Frenchman, Arnaud Clement, in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon.  The two battled five sets worth until Schuettler prevailed and with this victory earned the honor to lose to Rafael Nadal (he played well, but never seriously threatened to win).

At 34 years of age, Schuettler shows Santoro-like resilience.  Perhaps he may become a player that can continue to play singles into his late 30s.  It’s been a long time since Jimmy Connors whose power game aged gracefully until he made his one last hurrah to the US Open semis.  These days, the game requires speed a foot and often speed goes as you get older.  But players like Clement, Schuettler, Ljubicic, Haas, and a handful of others show that old guys can still play a young guy’s game.

This is exactly the kind of match Querrey used to struggle to win.  Querrey’s game, much like Isner’s game, has been beefed up.  Both have learned to hit better serves.  With two of the best serves in the business, they often get weak replies.  Querrey has learned to take weak returns, hit it inside out, for his version of serve and volley.  In his case, serve and hit a forehand winner.

Querrey has improved his mobility, but it’s still not at the top levels of the game.  For over a set and a half, Schuettler used his superior movement and his savvy veteran aggression to come into net and outlast Querrey from the baseline.  Querrey, for his part, wanted to take big swipes at the ball, and while he had no problems hitting winners when it was on his serve, he slapped shots long or wide or in the net when it was on Schuettler’s serve.

When Querrey lost the first set in a close tiebreak, he had to wonder if he could keep his head in the match, to remind himself that he wasn’t being pressured on his own serve and as long as that was the case, he’d always put pressure on his opponents.  He had a close game late in the first set where he fended off set point after set point but eventually held, and that had to provide confidence even though he lost that set later in a tiebreak.

Querrey would get a break late in the second set for the first time, then break early in the third set and hold serve to close out the match.  This win means Querrey has reached his fourth final of the year.  He reached the finals of Memphis (win over Isner), the finals of Houston (lost to Chela), the finals of Belgrade (win over Isner), and now the finals of Queen’s.  Queen’s is clear the strongest field Sam has reached the final of, but most of the seeds faded, and worse still, it’s still only an ATP 250 event.  A loss won’t help him much because it will be piled into one of four ATP 250 events.   Although Querrey has participated in many ATP 250 events, he can only count a handful of them.  A win in the final helps him.  A loss doesn’t change his rank at all.  It would be as if he never played the tournament.

Indeed, one of Querrey’s frustrations was not moving up the ranks.  Querrey has performed like a champ at ATP 250 events.  Indeed, because he’s piling up ATP 250 finals and wins, he doesn’t really have to defend these points.  As soon as one event falls off the list, a more recent result replaces it.  But for Querrey to step up to the next level, he needs to go deep in ATP 500 events or Masters 1000 events.  Even solid quarterfinal appearances, well within his capabilities, would lead him up in the ranks.  Early losses in the Slams and Masters 1000 are hurting him, and Sam is starting to realize this.  Even so, he has to look at any win, even at smaller events as the catalyst to bigger wins.

Querrey will face yet another American in the finals.  Indeed, Querrey has faced quite a few Americans in finals.  He lost to Ginepri last year in Indianapolis and to Rajeev Ram in Newport who, despite his Indian name, is actually American.  Querrey faces the dangerous Mardy Fish whose rank has dropped considerably but is still capable of playing a big game.  Fish beat Murray, then beat Llodra, and then Feliciano Lopez, who just came off a big victory over Nadal.

Across the pond in Halle, Roger Federer faced his toughest challenge in Halle so far, and beat German Philipp Petzchner 7-6(3), 6-4.  The other German, Benjamin Becker, fought a bit harder, but lost to veteran, Lleyton Hewitt, 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 6-2.

Several things must frustrated Lleyton Hewitt.   Although he’s about a year older than Federer, his success came way back in 2001 with his first US Open win and then Wimbledon, the following year.  His last final was 5 years ago in the Australian Open.  It’s hard to believe that your best years were almost a decade ago, and you struggle to be relevant now.  But Hewitt has always been a fighter, and even as many players have passed him by, the willingness to fight gets him a few wins every now and then.

Hewitt will face his long-time nemesis, Roger Federer.  Hewitt used to confound Roger.  His groundstrokes pushed Federer around so much that Fed used to rush to net so he could try to take over the point (or lose it quickly).  Hewitt won 7 of the first 9 meetings, but has not beaten Fed since 2003.  Federer has taken the next 15 matches including a routine straight set win at the Australian Open.  Grass is one surface that Hewitt might feel he can at least push Federer, even if he doesn’t win.  Fed has yet to drop a set in Halle with his win over Petzschner being his closest match so far.