WIMBLEDON, England – Having won the first two sets against the Serbian star Novak Djokovic before the rain came, Sam Querrey had a long night at Wimbledon to consider the prospect of one of the biggest upsets in recent tennis history.
He now has a lifetime to savor it, while Djokovic can ponder the Grand Slam that got away.
Querrey, a 28-year-old Californian with a thunderclap serve and forehand, handled the mounting pressure and a total of four rain delays with surprising aplomb to close out his stunning 7-6 (6), 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (5) victory in the third round Saturday.
Above all, he handled the top-seeded Djokovic, who has been in the deepest of grooves, having won 30 straight Grand Slam singles matches and four straight Grand Slam tournaments, including, last month, the French Open for the first time.
“Definitely the biggest win I’ve ever had,” Querrey said. “But there’s another match after this, so hopefully I can keep it going, make a quarterfinal of a Slam, which I’ve never done before.”
And yet this was not the same shock-absorbing Djokovic who has deflected power and cruised through many a draw in the past two seasons.
“It’s an amazing feeling, obviously, to be able to hold four Grand Slams at the same time,” Djokovic said. “Coming into Wimbledon, obviously, here I knew that mentally it’s not going to be easy to kind of remotivate myself. But the importance of this tournament is so immense that you always find ways to really get inspired and prepare and try to give your best. Obviously, my best wasn’t good enough this year.”
Last year, Djokovic dodged a similar sort of danger in the fourth round at Wimbledon when he rallied from a two-set deficit over two days to win against another tall, mild-mannered and huge-serving opponent: Kevin Anderson of South Africa.
But the 28th-seeded Querrey, relaxed enough between big points to keep flipping his racket in the air and catching it by the grip, was able to slam the escape hatch that Anderson had left ajar. Querrey finished with 31 aces against Djokovic, the world’s premier returner, and dominated in the short rallies, winning 124 points out of 220 in exchanges of fewer than five strokes.
“I think Sam has got a really, really tricky game for anybody to play against,” said his coach, Craig Boynton. “He serves huge, and when he’s taking his full cuts at the ball, he’s not going to give you any rhythm.”
Boynton’s other pupil, Steve Johnson, also reached the fourth round, earning a shot at a major upset of his own against Roger Federer. Querrey is scheduled to face unseeded Frenchman Nicolas Mahut.
“It seemed to me Novak was a little bit off, a little edgy,” Boynton said. “A lot of people don’t understand how hard it is for these top guys. What they have to do, day in and day out, is incredible, but look, Novak is going to lose at some point. He’s human.”
Djokovic looked particularly mortal in the early and closing stages of this match, which stretched over two days because of the rain that has continued to rewrite the Wimbledon schedule.
Djokovic had not lost before the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament since the 2009 French Open, where Philipp Kohlschreiber beat him in the third round.
The 6-foot-6 Querrey, for all his big weapons, was only 37-37 in Grand Slam singles matches before his match with Djokovic on Court 1 Saturday, and had to rally from a two-set deficit in the first round here before beating Lukas Rosol, 12-10, in the fifth set. But he has a winning record now, along with a victory for the time capsule.
“It’s not career defining, but it’s really exciting,” he said. “It’s something that I’ll always get to have, which is great.”
