By Chris Oddo | Wednesday September 6, 2017
Kevin Anderson became the first South African to reach the last four at the U.S. Open since 1965 with his four-set win over Sam Querrey on Day 9.
Big serves, big forehand, big win.
South African Kevin Anderson battled his way past American Sam Querrey as Tuesday night turned to Wednesday morning in Queens. The No.28 seed crushed 67 winners against 45 unforced errors and notched a 7-6(5), 6-7(11), 6-3, 7-6(7) victory to book his first career Grand Slam semifinal.
“It was a great match,” Anderson told reporters in a press conference immediately following the match, which ended just shy of 2 A.M. New York time. “You know, I have put in a lot of work. It definitely feels good that I have reached some milestone that I haven't before.”
Anderson improved to 7-8 lifetime against Querrey with a steady and strong performance in a match of thin margins and big, booming serves.
Querrey made a match of it when he converted his 8th set point in a dramatic second-set breaker to level at a set apiece, but before the thin but vocal New York crowd could rally Querrey to higher heights Anderson took the third set on the strength of a break in the sixth game.
“He has such a big serve,” Querrey said after the match. “It's, like, hard to get a lot of momentum. Even though I won that set, he can come out and just had three great service games, boom, boom, boom, and it kind of takes away your momentum a little bit.”
Anderson took the fourth set but had to save a set point in the breaker before wrapping up the contest on his third match point when Querrey missed with the forehand.
The South African is the first man from his country to reach the U.S. Open semifinal since Johan Kriek in 1980. He will face Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta in an unlikely Grand Slam semifinal.