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.
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Resuming two sets to the good after rain halted his unlikely victory charge on Friday, Querrey lost the opening five games on Court One as Djokovic came out firing.
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. “He serves very well”.
“It must be natural”, Querrey said, “because I didn’t really know I did it”.
There had been talk that Djokovic was not 100 percent fit, but the Serb deflected questions about his health.
Djokovic served to take the set into the tiebreak and was ahead at 2/0 and 4/3 but Querrey clawed his way to two match points.
Djokovic started the tournament as a dominant $1.61 favourite and he was expected to cruise to his third Grand Slam title of the year, but produced an unusually flat effort in the third round against American veteran Sam Querrey and was bundled out of the tournament.
“If I didn’t win, there would have been a lot of, ‘Wow, it was kind of a fluky match against Novak, because you didn’t back it up, ‘” Querrey said. But I yeah also need to see how things go at the end of this event.
“But, I actually felt pretty level-headed and steady the whole time. I re-motivated myself, but my best wasn’t good enough this year”.
A third-round knock-out blow that improved the prospects of everyone else in the draw, whether they might admit it or not, was inflicted by big-serving Sam Querrey of the U.S. on Court One.
Murray, who became the first British man to win Wimbledon for 77 years in 2013, will play Australian 15th seed Nick Kyrgios or Spain’s Feliciano Lopez for a place in the quarter-finals.
It was a comprehensive success for the Queenslander, who played on of the best matches of his career and turned back the clock to his 2011 All England Club quarter-final form. Although Djokovic won the third set, Querrey made him pay for the 31 unforced errors and won the fourth, clinching a memorable win.
Querrey holds a 2-1 head-to-head edge over Raonic, a two-time major semifinalist, including at Wimbledon in 2014.
Djokovic last exited as early as the third round at any major tournament all the way back in 2009, when he departed the French Open at that stage.
“I would have liked to have been at the US Open and be the first to shake Djokovic’s hand if he did it”.
Laver thought after all these years someone would have joined him and Budge. The player said, “It was a lifetime opportunity to play against World number one on court number one and no doubt it was nice to win such a match”. However Querrey said after winning the match, “I am not going to lie”.
“That’s just Sam”, said No. 9 Madison Keys, who reached the fourth round Saturday.
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“He’s so awesome, he’s on the way to being possibly the best ever, so you know he’s mentally tough and going to come back”.
