Looking at the résumés of the final four men standing, the 31-year-old Californian is by far the most accomplished, too, with 10 career ATP World Tour titles since he won his first in 2008. The other three, whether it’s Daniel Elahi Galan or Jordan Thompson in the rain-suspended final quarterfinal, have collected, well, zero. Only Querrey’s next hurdle, Christian Garin of Chile, has played in a final. Querrey will be at least seven years older than any of them and almost owns more ATP-level wins on clay — 51 — than the trio’s 53 on all surfaces combined.
Of course, none of them were named John Isner or Jack Sock, two of the event’s three former champions active on the tour. Isner, ranked 10th, pulled out with a foot injury he suffered last Sunday while playing Roger Federer in the Miami Open final and Sock has been sidelined since January after undergoing hand surgery for reasons that remain murky. It could have resulted from a snowboarding accident, or maybe it didn’t.
Anyway, Querrey doesn’t feel like he’s carrying the flag or anything like that for his vanquished comrades, which include the twice-defending champion and top-seeded Steve Johnson, who was pounded by the Colombian qualifier Galan in the second round. It appeared Galan would also make short work of the seventh-seeded Australian Thompson on Friday evening, winning the first set 6-1, but Thompson steadied himself to take the second 6-4 and it was 3-all in the third when play was suspended for the evening because of rain.
That match will be continued at 1 p.m. Saturday. Querrey-Galan goes on next, with the Thompson-Galan winner then returning to face Casper Ruud in the second semifinal. No. 1 doubles seeds Bob and Mike Bryan, through to their 10th semifinal in the last 11 years here and seeking their seventh title, play Santiago Gonzalez and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi in the day’s final match with the doubles final moving to noon Sunday. The singles final starts at 2 p.m.
Tennis players are, of course, citizens of the world (except, OK, during Davis Cup ties). Querrey’s weekend objective, he said, is simply to be the last man standing “out of everybody.”
He went on to point out, “This is a kind of a one-off year,” and he’s right about that. The last time only one American advanced to the quarterfinals was 2001, the first year after the Clay Courts had moved to Westside Tennis Club from Disney World. But he should take it as a good omen. A young Andy Roddick also flew solo on the weekend that spring and won the title, his first of three in Houston.
Querrey last prevailed anywhere in 2017 and, having recently changed coaches — moving on from USTA national coach Craig Boynton to another USTA coach, Vahe Assadourian — he suggests he is all but “starting from scratch.” His long-reliable serve hasn’t been impacted. The 23 aces he blasted past the Serb Tipsarevic, 34, were the second most for a two-set match in the tournament going back to at least 1991. Isner, with arguably the biggest serve on the tour, pounded 24 in beating Dennis Kudla in 2016.
Querrey needed his heavy artillery because he wasn’t as sharp as he had been.
“My first two matches were definitely very clean,” he said. “This was more of finding a way through it, edging past a tough opponent. There were some frustrating moments.”
If, ultimately, survivable ones. Querrey, who lost only five points on his first serve, led both tiebreakers 4-1 but let his former world top-10 opponent, who needed a wild card into the main draw as he tries — again — to fight his way back from multiple surgeries that derailed his once-promising career, made him sweat in each.
Tipsarevic ran off five points in a row to lead the first one 6-4 before Querry righted the ship. And it took a double fault by Tipsarevic at 4-all in the second to give him the opening he needed to close out the match in one hour, 47 minutes.
Garin, 22, in turn, had required 72 minutes to dispatch Henri Laaksonen 6-3, 6-2 — after battling for three-plus hours two days earlier to upset the second-seeded Jeremy Chardy — and Casper Ruud, 20, of Norway made shorter work of the 2008 champion Marcel Granollers of Spain, cruising 6-1, 6-0 in 62 minutes.
Trying to become the first Norwegian champion in ATP World Tour history, Casper Ruud beat qualifier Daniel Elahi Galan of Colombia 7-5, 6-2 on Saturday to reach the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship.
The 20-year-old Ruud will face Christian Garin of Chile. The 22-year-old Garin beat American Sam Querrey 7-6 (2), 6-2.
Ruud's father, Christian, won the River Oaks International exhibition tournament on these grounds in 1996. Christian Ruud, who was in the stands Saturday, was the last player from Norway to make an ATP final, at Bastad, Sweden, in 1995.
"It's an amazing feeling to be in your first final. It's what we work hard for," Ruud said. "But even though it's been an amazing week, I'm hungry to win the last match."
Garin also is seeking his first tour title.
Ruud overcame a 5-2 first-set deficit, requiring assistance from a trainer for neck discomfort early in the match.
Garin was a first-time finalist in Sao Paulo last month, beating Ruud in the semifinals.
"He's the favorite," Ruud said. "He's been in a final before."
Galan completed his rain-interrupted quarterfinal match against Australian Jordan Thompson on Saturday, winning 1-6, 6-4, 6-4. There was a 1 1/2-hour delay between the two semifinals when another downpour drenched the court.
Eighth-seeded Sam Querrey advanced to the semifinals in the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship on Friday, beating Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4).
The American saved two set points in the opening set and one in the second.
"My first two matches were pretty clean, but this match was more about fighting your way through it," Querrey said. "There were some frustrating moments against a tough opponent, but I found a way to win those tiebreaks and that's what tennis is about sometimes."
Querrey will face Christian Garin of Chile, a 6-3, 6-2 winner over Swiss qualifier Henri Laaksonen.
Norway's Casper Ruud also advanced, spoiling Spaniard Marcel Granollers' 33rd birthday with a 6-1, 6-0 victory.
Rudd will face the winner of the suspended match between seventh-seeded Jordan Thompson of Australia and Colombian qualifier Daniel Elahi. They were tied at 3-3 in the third set when rain pushed the finish to Saturday. Galen won the first set 6-1, and Thompson the second 6-4.
