Kevin Anderson Reaches US Open Semifinals Beating Sam Querrey
Kevin Anderson of South Africa defeated American Sam Querrey 7-6(5), 6-7(9), 6-3, 7-6(7) to reach the US Open semifinals, his first major final four.
It was a battle between two of the taller men in tennis – Anderson at 6’8”, and Querrey, at 6’ 6”, making it the tallest major quarterfinal, semifinal or final in the Open era
It was a serving battle as Anderson had 22 aces to Querrey’s 20.
Anderson, the 28th seed came back from 2-5 in the first set tiebreak to win it, and almost came back in the second set tiebreak from 1-6 down.
Anderson becomes the first South African to reach a major final four since Wayne Ferreira did at the 2003 Australian Open.
“it feels really good, “Anderson said. “Now, it just happened really quick, I guess. Just got off a few minutes ago. It was an incredible match.
“Again, matches like that, you sort of focus on getting through right there and then and look at the bigger picture afterwards.
“It was a great match. You know, I have put in a lot of work. It definitely, you know, feels good that I have reached some, you know, milestone that I haven’t before. At the same time, I feel like I came into this taking each match at a time.
“It’s going to be really — I think I will let myself enjoy it for the next day. I will have a couple days off now and definitely going to then refocus for my next match.”
“I want to say it’s a fantastic feeling, but at the same time I feel like I want to keep, you know, I feel like — you know, I’m still in this tournament. I feel like I’m going to have another opportunity to go one step further.”
Despite the loss, 17th seed Querrey was upbeat about the tournament.
“Pretty happy. At the beginning of the week, if you said I would have made quarters, I probably would have signed up for that. I know that bottom half of the draw was open, but you can’t say 63 guys blew an opportunity. Only one guy can go through, and Kevin’s pretty tough.”
Anderson will play Pablo Carreno Busta for a place in the US Open final.
More to follow….
