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| Sam Querrey, right, plays doubles with Gilles Muller of Luxembourg at Indian Wells in March. Both players today reached the Wimbledon singles quarterfinals. Muller ousted two-time champion Rafael Nadal, seeded fourth, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 15-13 in 4 hours, 48 minutes. Photo by Paul Bauman |
And another Northern California product scored an upset in the first round of boys singles.
No. 24 seed Sam Querrey, 29, outlasted Kevin Anderson of South Africa 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-7 (11), 6-3 to advance to the Wimbledon quarters for the second consecutive year. Both players were trying to reach their second Grand Slam quarterfinal.
Meanwhile, CiCi Bellis teamed with fellow 18-year-old Marketa Vondrousova, from the Czech Republic, to defeat Ukrainians Lyudmyla Kichenok and Lesia Tsurenko 6-4, 6-2.
Also, Sam Riffice, who grew up in the Sacramento suburb of Roseville, topped fourth-seeded Yu Hsiou Hsu of Taiwan 6-4, 7-5.
Querrey now lives in Santa Monica in the Los Angeles area. Bellis recently bought a house in Orlando, Fla., the home of the USTA National Campus.
Anderson saved four match points in the fourth-set tiebreaker and one at 2-5 in the fifth set.
Both Querrey, 6-foot-6 (1.98 meters), and Anderson, 6-foot-8 (2.03 meters), hammered 31 aces in the 3-hour, 7-minute battle. Querrey committed only one double fault to Anderson's five. Querrey had 59 winners and only 18 unforced errors versus Anderson's 66 and 28.
Querrey, who stunned Novak Djokovic in the third round at Wimbledon last year, now must overcome a huge obstacle to reach his first Grand Slam semifinal. He is scheduled to face top seed and defending champion Andy Murray, a 7-6 (1), 6-4, 6-4 winner over volatile Frenchman Benoit Paire, on Wednesday.
"This match was by far the best, the cleanest, I have hit the ball here," Murray, who advanced to the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the 10th consecutive year, crowed to reporters. "I has happy about that. Last couple of days, practice has been really good as well. I didn't feel great during my last match. I didn't feel like I played so well, not loads of rhythm in the first two matches. I definitely felt better today."
Murray, a 30-year-old Scot, withdrew from two exhibitions before Wimbledon with a sore hip and hobbled between points against Paire.
"I said at the beginning of the tournament, I'll be able to get through seven matches, if that's what I have to do," Murray said. "Obviously I want to try to get to the final. And, yeah, I've done a good job so far here."
Murray is 7-1 against Querrey. They have met only once since 2014, with Murray winning 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 in the third round of this year's Australian Open. They also faced each other in the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2010, with Murray triumphing 7-5, 6-3, 6-4.
"He makes a ton of balls," Querrey said. "He plays great defense. ... Hopefully I can make that extra ball or close out a little harder at the net, try not to let him dictate with his defense.
"It's going to be tough. I've played him in the past, like in Australia, many times before that. He's playing at a high level. He's the defending champion, No. 1 in the world. He loves playing here. The crowd is going to be behind him. But sometimes it's fun to go out there and play where the crowd is behind the other player 100 percent. I'm going to try to play aggressive, hopefully play well, and sneak out a win."
Bellis and Vondrousova, the girls runners-up in the 2014 French Open, are set to take on ninth-seeded Hao-Ching Chan of Taiwan and Monica Niculescu of Romania on Wednesday. Chan and Niculescu held off Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil and Ana Konjuh of Croatia 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-4.
Riffice is scheduled to face Constantin Bittoun Kouzmine of France on Tuesday. Bittoun Kouzmine defeated Anton Matusevich of Great Britain 6-3, 3-0, retired.
