American Sam Querrey achieved a career best with a surprise victory over an energized Rafael Nadal in the Mexican Open final, 6-3 7-6 (7-3). Coming over a week after his compatriot Jack Sock’s title at the Delray Beach Open, it’s been a terrific couple of weeks for USA men’s tennis.
Sam Querrey’s biggest title came at the expense of expected winner Rafael Nadal, who hadn’t dropped a set until he reached the finals. The Spaniard had won the tournament twice before, when it was played on clay, and this would have been his first win here on the new hardcourt surface, implemented in 2014.
Querrey dispatched three top-ten players to win the Masters 500 event, including Dominic Thiem (#9), David Goffin (#10 a few weeks ago, now #11), and the 14-time grand slam champion (#6) for his ninth title. The 29 year-old player demonstrated the type of dominant display that he had employed to oust another of the Big Four, Novak Djokovic, in a third round Wimbledon shocker last year, an event that precipitated the Serb’s decline and subsequent loss of the world #1 ranking.
After sailing through the tourney in customary dominance, Rafa seemed to run out of steam when the final arrived, going for his 70th career win. The world number 40 took just 29 minutes to take the first set, even with the crowd pulling for the Spanish player. However, Nadal can never be counted out when he’s down and customarily bounced back in the second set to make it a match. Unable to convert six break points on the 29 year-old, the nine-time French Open champ ultimately lost the set and title, giving Querrey his victory over the Australian Open finalist for the first time.
Recalling his shock win over then-number one Djokovic last year at Wimbledon, Querrey discussed Roger Federer’s historic 18th GS win in Australia at the age of 35 to the Palm Beach Post while playing in the Delray Beach tennis tournament a few weeks prior.
“That match has passed, but it did give me confidence that I can hang with those guys on any given day.” said Querrey to the Post. “I hope the best is yet to come,” he said. “Would I like to be playing at 35-37, no, but I still think I have a few good years left in me.”
Jack Sock, the new top ranked American, won just the week before. The Californian did not win in South Florida the week prior, but the title there went to another surprise American, 26 year-old Jack Sock, his third ATP title and his second for the year in just two months, a terrific start to 2017.
Sock, won the Masters 250 tourney with an unfortunate injury withdrawal from top seed Milos Raonic, but without dropping a set among his matches prior to the final. The win in Delray propelled the top ranked American to move up to no. 18 in ATP Rankings after the event.
Sock’s only ATP title had been in 2015, but he now holds two this year already, including the Aukland “warm-up” to the Australian Open, beating Portugal’s Joao Sousa to claim his second title. February was a very good month for the American, as both he and his compatriot Querrey defeated Switzerland in the quarter-finals of the Davis Cup.
Sock’s been on a streak since last year, supplanting John Isner as the top-ranked USA men’s player since October of that year. He’s hoping to keep the streak going and break into the top 10, possibly higher.
“I’m playing these tournaments every week to try and win. Tennis-wise, physically and mentally, I think I’m ready to make that jump and my tennis is speaking for itself,” said Sock in his post-Delray Beach match interview, according to ATP World Tour. “I need to just keep doing all of the right things to keep moving forward.”
”I’ve been playing well. Now I just have to keep my head down and do everything I can to progress,” he said, according to Fox Sports.
Although both men are in what’s considered the later stages of their tennis careers, the recent wins shine a small ray of hope in a sport that has many longing for American men to display the kind of dominance they once did in the era of John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Andre Agassi, and of course the 14-time champ Pete Sampras.
The last USA man to win a grand slam was in 2003, with Andy Roddick winning his only GS title at the US Open. The “decline” in men’s tennis has been called “embarrassing” and watching two young 19 year-old hopefuls, Francis Tiafoe (ranked 89) and Taylor Fritz (who went from an exciting 53 to a current 136) fizzle out in the first round of last year’s US Open isn’t giving much hope for the future of men’s tennis in this country. Serena and Venus Williams are doing just fine on the women’s side, of course.
The USTA recognizes the problem and recently unveiled “the new home of American tennis,” a new state-of-the-art $60 million, 64-acre modern tennis facility in Orlando, FL that has been designed to train the next generation of American players with specialized courts of various surfaces.
In the meantime, the USTA men’s side can feel proud with the performances from Sam Querrey and Jack Sock to give 2017 a great start for American men. Both players are scheduled to compete this week in the Masters 1000 event, in Indian Wells, CA.