By Blair Henley
When American qualifier Ryan Sweeting hit an ace on match point to clinch his 7-6, 6-4 upset victory over No. 22 Sam Querrey in Delray Beach, he pumped his fists and ran to shake his opponent’s hand as the crowd went wild. Then he got the bad news: his serve was a let. But as he began arguing the call, Querrey conceded the point. Game, set, match, Sweeting.
But what was presumably an unusual act of sportsmanship by one of the game’s top players actually turned out to be a surrender of sorts. Querrey, who has struggled over the past week with pain in his right shoulder, admitted after the match that he did hear the let in question.
“It was a good serve,” he said, despite the fact that he heard it tip the net. “I had three other calls go my way that I probably didn’t agree with, so I said, ‘You’re good, good serve.’”
In spite of a bizarre ending and Querrey’s seeming indifference, Sweeting deserves credit for his breakthrough win. He managed to pull off the first set after squandering both a 3-0 lead and his first three set points with Querrey serving at 4-5. It wasn’t until his fourth set point at 6-5 in the tiebreak that he was able to convert.
Sweeting, ranked 118th, needed only one break to seal his victory in the second set, but the match could have easily taken a different turn when he launched a ball out of the stadium in anger after going down 0-40 on his final service game. After receiving a “ball abuse” warning, Sweeting fought off four total break points before clinching the match with an “ace.” Afterward, Sweeting, who did not hear the let in question, had only good things to say about Querrey.
“What a standup guy. He’s a real class act on the court,” he said. “He truly didn’t have to give me that point. It’s never easy serving for the match. For him to acknowledge that it was an ace is really a credit to him. “
Sweeting, who lives in nearby Ft. Lauderdale, will play the winner of American James Blake and Kei Nishikori of Japan in his first ATP Tour quarterfinal. He sees himself moving up the tennis ranks slowly, but surely.
“My ranking is consistently moving up…maybe not at a fast rate, but I feel like it’s going in the right direction,” he said. “ Maybe down the road I’ll be in the top 20, but I’m taking baby steps.”
Querrey now heads to Santiago, Chile for the U.S. Davis Cup first round match on March 4-6. Though he holds an abysmal 1-4 Davis Cup singles record and has won only three matches in his first five tournaments of 2011, the 23-year-old still trusts in his ability.
“I’m actually feeling good right now,” he said. “I’m not low on confidence or anything. If my shoulder is healthy, I feel like I’m playing great.”