Wake Forest Athletics
W-S Open Day Five: Querrey Downs Nieminen
8/21/2013 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Aug 21, 2013
By Ben Helms, Wake Forest Athletic Communications
Winston-Salem Open Official Site
American hopes are still alive at the Winston-Salem Open, as Sam Querrey downed 11-seeded Jarkko Nieminen in an electric match on Center Court. Querrey earned a come-from-behind victory that featured two tiebreakers, with the six-seeded American winning by a score of 4-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(10).
The Finnish 32-year-old struck first, winning five games in a row to close out the first set. But the rest of the match proved to be far closer. Neither player picked up a break in the second set, forcing a tiebreaker. Querrey sprinted to an early 4-0 lead and held off a Nieminen run to force a deciding final set.
Both players served strong in the third set as well, with zero break points. Early in the deciding tiebreaker, Querrey played Nieminen even until a few bad breaks gave the 11 seed a 6-3 victory. After five match points for Nieminen, Querrey earned a point on a return, and served a clutch ace to clinch the match.
Querrey served up 19 aces, 11 of them coming in the third set. He won 82% of his first service points while limiting his double faults to just two. Nieminen said that the match was tough to lose given the tight scores.
It's always painful to lose because it's so close...But that's how tennis is. It was a very close match. In the end it's about one, two, three points," said Mieminen.
Querrey will next face Ricardas Berankis, a 23-year-old from Lithuania, on Thursday in the quarterfinals.
