In last year’s Wimbledon third round, Sam Querrey had his match against Novak Djokovic postponed due to darkness while it was ongoing. Querrey came back out the next day and finished off one of the biggest upsets of 2017.
Lightning struck twice at the All-England Club on Saturday, albeit this time in less spectacular fashion. With his showdown against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga extended after night fell too early for a Friday completion, Querrey returned to his grass-court stomping grounds leading 6-5 in the fifth set. The 6’6” American did not wait long to seal the deal. He broke Tsonga right away to end it, avenging a 14-12 in the fifth set loss to the Frenchman at the 2014 Wimbledon event by getting the job done 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(5), 1-6, 7-5.
“It was anticlimactic, but I will take the one game like that over anything else,” Querrey commented. “In the last game I kind of had a little bit of the house money since I was returning first and I kind of had a game to play with, I guess you could say. I think that helped. I was just trying to win however I could.”
Aside from the Querrey-Tsonga continuation, it was the bottom half of the draw’s turn on the third-round schedule. Most of the favorites–Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer among them–took care of business and earned spots in the second week. Djokovic ended Ernests Gulbis’ run via a 6-4, 6-1, 7-6(2) decision and Roger Federer defeated Mischa Zverev 7-6(3), 6-4, 6-4.
“I think it’s great,” Federer said when asked about the Big 4 being in the second week of Wimbledon for the first time since 2011. “I’m not that surprised because I thought that everybody this week was going to find their form, especially speaking about Andy (Murray) and Novak. So I thought they did it very well.
“With me, I hoped I was going to be there. Whereas with [Rafael Nadal]’s confidence, I thought he was also going to be there. So I’m not that surprised, but it’s great.”
Djokovic’s passage to the last 16 was hardly ever in doubt. The second-seeded Serb started relatively slow and trailed by an early break against Gulbis, but he reeled off a stretch of nine straight games in his favor from 4-2 down in the opening set to a 6-4, 5-0 advantage.
“Gulbis is someone that is very unpredictable and has a huge serve,” Djokovic noted. “With that kind of game–very powerful, fast game from back of the court–it’s not easy to play against him on this surface. I’m really pleased that I managed to win in straight sets against him, especially in the third set where he started serving better, higher percentage of first serves. He kind of gave it a last shot. I thought he played a good quality tennis. But I managed to hang on with him and play a very good tiebreak.”
Djokovic will battle Adrian Mannarino on the second Monday, while Federer is set to face Grigor Dimitrov. Querrey, meanwhile, will try to keep his run going at the expense of Kevin Anderson.
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after the last match, looks like Novak has higher opportunity to be in final playing Rafa.
Didn’t see the Novak match, but he obviously did well to get by in straight sets against Gulbis. I thought Roger played well but not great. Have to give Zverev credit; he was serving well, especially the slider into the body that was giving Roger some problems.
Still have doubts that Rafa will make the final, especially if Cilic continues or improves his form. And as long as Murray is not injured, a match between him and Rafa would be 50/50, imo.
Gulbis basically tanked from midway through first to strr of the third though. Only when he was screwed did he start trying again. #OnlyGulbis #OrTomicIGuess
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