Querrey’s Slump Continues, Lost to Sweeting; Isner Sets Up Ace Contest vs Karlovic
HOUSTON, USA – Second seed and last year’s finalist Sam Querrey lost to fellow American Ryan Sweeting in the second round of the US Men’s Clay Court Championships on Wednesday. The match has a total of 11 breaks of serve, nine of which occurred in the last five games of the second set until the first two games of the third set.
“I just don’t feel comfortable on clay yet…I need to just put a couple of weeks of practice in there and get ready for the next tournament,” Querrey said.
The 93rd-ranked Sweeting saved 18 of 24 break points, 6 of which are in the final game. Sweeting also defeated Querrey in Delray Beach last February to reach his first tour-level quarterfinals. He will next face Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia in the quarterfinals. Gabashvili beat eighth seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, 76(4) 63.
In another round, fourth seed John Isner of the USA defeated Horacio Zeballos of Argentina, 75 63. Isner fired 14 aces and did not face a break point on his serve. “I actually enjoy playing on clay but the first one is very tough…The movement is very different and I only (get) to practice four or five times on clay. I was just trying to get through,” Isner said.
Isner is now going to face fellow ace machine Ivo Karlovic of Crotia in the quarterfinals. Karlovic fired 12 aces to beat Igor Kunitsyn of Russia 64 61. The Croatian has to go through three qualifying matches to reach this round. Though Karlovic lost his serve early in the 66-minute match, he converted four of his break point opportunities to.
Karlovic is playing for the first time in this ATP World Tour 250 tournament since winning it in 2007. The former top 14 player is now ranked 174 in the world and is making his comeback from an Achilles heel’s injury.
The 6’10” Karlovic and 6’9” Isner have split their two previous matches. Karlovic won their match in 2008 at New Haven while Isner returned the favor in 2010 at Memphis. “It’s not often I get to look eye to eye with someone and he’s the same,” Isner quipped.
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