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Kevin Anderson Muscles Past Sam Querrey To Move Into US Open Semifinals

by | Sep 6, 2017 | Blog

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For the first time since Todd Martin (Northwestern) at the 2000 US Open, we have a player with college ties in the semifinals at a grand slam. Former Illinois Fighting Illini Kevin Anderson (’05-’07) busted through the ceiling late Tuesday night with a tough four-set win over American Sam Querrey. Due to the Venus Williams/Petra Kvitova match running late, Anderson and Querrey didn’t take the court until almost 10:30 p.m. ET and by the time the match ended at 1:51 a.m. there was only around 2000 fans left in the almost 24000 seat Arthur Ashe Stadium. 

Anderson dictated play all night long with the 6 foot 8 inch South African crushing the ball off both wings. The opening set was dominated by the server with both guys holding at ease with neither facing a break point. Querrey jumped out to a 5-2* lead in the tiebreak but Anderson reeled off the final five points to take it 7-5. 

Both guys started returning better in the second set with Anderson breaking Querrey from 30/40 to go up 3-2 and then he’d hold for 4-2. Querrey took the next three games, which included a break from 30/40, to go up 5-4 and after a few more holds the set would end up in a tiebreak. Querrey opened up a *6-1 in the tiebreak but Anderson came charging back and evened it at 6-6. It looked like Anderson would go up 7-6 because he was in total control of the next point but he pushed an open volley just long to give Querrey a sixth set point. Anderson won both points on his serve to go up 8-7, which gave him his only set point, but Querrey managed to pull out the tiebreak 11-9. 

In the third set, Anderson really started to put the heat on Querrey’s second serve which led to five double faults. Anderson won 10 of 15 points on Querrey’s second serve and got the break he needed on Querrey’s 2-3 service game. Anderson held two more times, both from 40/15, to take the set 6-3. 

The fourth set looked a lot like the first set with both guys holding serve with relative ease. Neither faced a break point and only two of 12 service games reached deuce. In the tiebreak, Anderson struck first when a Querrey unforced error made it 3-1 and it’d be 4-2 at the changeover. Some big hitting by Querrey won him the next three points but a couple of big serves by Anderson gave him his first match point at 6-5. The server won the next four points but Anderson would close it out 9-7 after Querrey sent a forehand well long. 

 

Anderson finished with 22 aces, landed 67% of his first serves, won 82% of the points on his first serve and 60% of the points on his second serve, won 25 of 35 points at the net, and hit 67 winners. It was truly a tremendous performance from Anderson who will now face Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta (ATP 19) in Friday’s semifinals.