Posted by James Martin, TENNIS.com
This time next year, as we pour over the ATP season-ending results, who do you think will be the highest-ranked American? Don't be surprised if it's
Sam Querrey's name atop the leaderboard.
Granted, the No. 39-ranked Querrey has some ground to make up to overtake the three Americans ahead of him: Mardy Fish (No. 24), James Blake (No. 10) and Andy Roddick (No. 8). But Blake is pushing 30, with Roddick and Fish not far behind. Querrey, meanwhile, is all upside: young, 21-year-old legs, with a power-baseline game and a big serve.
This season was Querrey's best to date. He won his first career title, in Las Vegas, and reached the semifinals of Delray Beach and Indianapolis. In the fourth round of the U.S. Open, Querrey kept Rafael Nadal off-balance with big forehands and surprisingly good court coverage before losing a fairly tight and tense four-setter. His most promising result, though, came on clay in Monte Carlo. Playing on a surface that's anathema to virtually all Americans these days, Querrey reached the quarterfinals. Although the lanky 6-foot-6 Californian's movement is anything but graceful, in Monte Carlo he showed that he has the court sense and patience to win on dirt and avoid becoming a hard-court specialist like Roddick and Blake.
Coming off such a successful season means Querrey will have to handle rising expectations. Can he build on his positive momentum? Will he shore up his weaknesses, such as his defensive skills on the backhand side? Does Querrey, who has said that his work ethic isn't as strong as some of his peers, have the go-for-the-jugular instinct to break into the top 10?
If anyone's watched Querrey, or heard him speak in press conferences, you know he's one chilled-out dude. He describes himself as "mellow," a demeanor that serves him well in tight moments of matches. Instead of being ruled by his emotions and sometimes self-destructing (which Roddick is prone to doing) or getting that hangdog look when things aren't going well (a la Blake), Querrey stays on an even keel. You may question whether he is too calm, but Querrey has enough fist-pumping moments on court to make you believe he's driven to succeed.
He also has to cope with being labeled the Next Great American Hope. "It's a drag," he told TENNIS Magazine in 2007 when asked about the expectations surrounding him. "But it's flattering that people are thinking that way." Of course, those expectations, and the pressures that come with them, are only going to intensify as Querrey continues to climb the rankings and Roddick and Blake begin the inevitable slide down them.
But Querrey seems to have the right attitude, avoiding putting too much pressure on himself while demanding more from his performances. He recently parted with his coach of almost four years, Grant Doyle, and hired two new coaches, David Nainkin and Alex Reichel. It's the kind of move that suggests Querrey understands the changing reality of his career: This year, it was good enough to merely push Nadal to four sets and lose (rather meekly) to the likes of Novak Djokovic. Next year, that won't cut it.
