The US’ Sam Querrey knocked out Britain’s Andy Murray in front of a packed centre court on day nine at Wimbledon. The American pulled off an unlikely five set victory, 3-6, 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 6-2, 6-1.
Murray opened up the match with a hold to love service game and immediately broke the Querrey serve to take an early two games to love lead. The set continued with both players holding serve with Murray winning the set 6-3, courtesy of the break in the second game of the set.
The second set illustrated that Querrey was dealing with nerves in the first set as it was more competitive and not as easy for Murray to dictate the points. An opportunity presented itself in the seventh game of the set as Murray found himself with two break points which he took to lead 4-3. Querrey broke back straight away with new balls to once again level it up at four games all. Querrey easily held his serve and with new momentum went on to break Murray again to seal the set 6-4.
Murray moved past the frustration of losing a second set that he was dominating to break Querrey in the first game of the third. The set looked as if it was going to be a carbon copy of the first, but Querrey managed to break the Murray serve to force a tiebreak. That break didn’t affect him too much as it was Murray who looked more confident and assured, wrapping up the tiebreak 7-6 (7-4).
Querrey took the lead for the first time in the match as he won the opening game of the fourth set. The set went with serve until the fifth game where Querrey broke to 15. The usual Murray antics of using the crowd to energise himself as well as gesticulating to his own box were nowhere to be seen as he appeared ‘flat’ in his demeanour and a fifth set was exactly what Querrey deserved. The impact of Murray’s hip injury began to tell as he moved more gingerly as the match progressed.
The American raced to a three games to love lead in the final set. Querrey didn’t let the occasion get to him as he took full advantage of a weakening Murray and momentum he’d wrestled back in the fourth to take the final set 6-1. Querrey deserved the win and progresses to his first grand slam semi final.
The Brit will be hoping that Novak Djokovic doesn’t progress too much further in the tournament now that he can’t defend his Wimbledon ranking points. It remains to be seen whether Murray will take time off heading into the US Open in order to regain his fitness.
