By Richard Pagliaro | Saturday, July 2, 2016
Sam Querrey slammed 31 aces snapping Novak Djokovic's 30-match Grand Slam winning streak and denying the world No. 1's bid for the calendar Grand Slam.
Photo credit: Stephen White/CameraSport
Spiking stress added another plot twist to the surging suspense as Sam Querrey stared down a tiebreak deficit against Novak Djokovic.
Spinning his black-and-yellow Babolat racquet in his hand, Querrey was calm in the midst of the perfect Wimbledon storm.
A bold Querrey slammed 31 aces scoring a seismic 7-6 (6), 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (5) third-round upset of reigning Wimbledon champion Djokovic on Court No. 1.
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"Just congratulation to Sam. He played a terrific match," Djokovic said. "He serves very well, as he usually does. I think that part of his game was brutal today. He made a lot of free points with the first serve. Just well done. He just overpowered me."
The towering Californian deconstructed one of the game's best returners winning five of the last seven points in the tie break to earn his first career victory over a world No. 1.
The 28th-seeded Querrey denied Djokovic's bid for the calendar Grand Slam snapping the Serbian's streak of 30 straight Grand Slam victories and ending his run of four consecutive major championships.
"It's incredible, especially to do it here at Wimbledon, the biggest tournament in the world," Querrey told the BBC afterward. "I'm so ecstatic right now, so happy and um, that's about it."
Querrey is the first American man to defeat a reigning world No. 1 at a major since Andre Agassi toppled Lleyton Hewitt at the 2002 US Open.
Afterward, a disconsolate Djokovic said he was not 100 percent healthy, but declined to elaborate.
"It's disappointing, of course, losing a Grand Slam hurts more than any other tournament there's no doubt about that," said Djokovic, who conducted his post-match press conference just a few minutes after the defeat. "It's been a very successful year so far, but a long one and exhausting one and I just need some rest."
It was Djokovic's first major loss since he succumbed to Stan Wawrinka in the 2015 Roland Garros final and his earliest major exit since world No. 31 Philipp Kohlschreiber swept him in the third round of the 2009 Roland Garros.
Contesting his 38th career Grand Slam, Querrey reached the round of 16 for the fourth time in his career and looked like the least surprised guy on the grounds when it was over.
This was a wild encounter than began at 6:45 p.m. local time last night. The match featured five rain delays, a powerful serving performance from Querrey, who fought off 14 of 17 break points, mis-hits, funky bounces a tricky breeze and an oddly apathetic performance by Djokovic in the second set when he mentally checked out losing five straight games to essentially donate the second set.
When play resumed today, the focused world No. 1 rolled out to a 4-0 lead in the third set before another rain delay. That interruption calmed Querrey.
"Fortunately, for me, we got another rain delay and I got to regroup," Querrey said. "He's so amazing. He's on his way to being possibly the best ever so you know he's mentally tough and he's going to come back."
Though Djokovic eventually wrapped up the set, the American managed to get one break back which enabled him to serve first at the start of the fourth set.
Sneaking an ace by Djokovic can be as challenging as playing on Centre Court wearing a tie-dye t-shirt. Hall of Famer Andre Agassi has called Djokovic the best returner he's ever seen.
None of that mattered much to Querrey, who continued to swing big and bold on both first and second serves and smacked his heavy forehand with menacing intent.
Querrey cracked his 12th ace for a 4-3 fourth-set lead. By that point, Querrey had warded off eight break points in the set.
"I think today, I played the break points really well," Querrey said. "Every time he had a break point, I was able to come up with a big serve. And in the end there, just fought in the tie breaker and got a couple of loose errors and that was it."
A defiant Querrey denied 11 break points in the fourth set, including cracking five aces on those critical points before the cumulative pressure finally caught up to him. A stray backhand gave the top seed a 12th break point in the set. Djokovic drilled a forehand down the line breaking for 5-4.
Sound decision-making is a Djokovic asset, but lapses of judgment cost him. Djokovic burned through all three of his challenges by the end of the fourth game of the fourth set and paid a heavy price for it.
Serving to level at 5-4, Djokovic could not challenge a first serve that caught the sideline but was incorrectly ruled out. Nor could he challenge a backhand that clipped the opposite sideline and was also incorrectly called out.
Instead of holding a 30-0 lead, two points from a fifth set, Djokovic fell into a 0-30 hole. A beautiful running backhand pass down the line gave Querrey double break point.
A jittery Djokovic badly bungled a low forehand volley pushing it into the middle of the net. Remarkably, Querrey, with a little help from missed line calls, had broken back for 5-all.
After the 41st-ranked American held for 6-5, another shower struck causing yet another rain delay. As Djokovic walked off the court he summoned coach Boris Becker for advice.
Returning to court four points from elimination, Djokovic reeled off six straight points.
When Querrey botched a bounce smash, he found himself down 1-3. Djokovic darted his sixth ace down the middle for a 4-3 lead, but three points from forcing a decider he fell apart.
Three errors in a row, including successive miscues from his normally rock-solid backhand, gave Querrey double match point.
With the crowd rising to a fever pitch, Djokovic saved the first match point with an ace. On the second match point, Querrey dug in against one of the game's best defenders and drawing one final errant forehand then leaped in the air in exuberance landing the biggest win of his career.
"Just stayed the course, didn't do anything special," Querrey said. "Can be tricky with all those rain delays. But fortunately just went out there, served well the whole time, played a great tiebreaker at the end to get the win."
Credit Djokovic for the class he showed in the aftermath of a shocking defeat—he gave Querrey a thumbs up and respectful handshake and even stopped to sign autographs after a painful loss.
This day belonged to Querrey, a man who has been on the wrong side of so many gut-wrenching Wimbledon defeats, including a 14-12 in the fifth set loss to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga two years ago and a grueling 17-15 in the fifth set defeat to Marin Cilic at the 2012 Championships.
This time, Querrey finished the job, denying Djokovic the calendar Slam and perhaps reigniting his own career in the process.
Querrey didn't have much time to enjoy a monumental victory, he returned to the court to play doubles with Steve Johnson and will face Nicolas Mahut, who beat Querrey on grass in the 's-Hertogenbosch semifinals last month, for a trip to his first Grand Slam quarterfinal.
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