Querrey Beats Davydenko In Dramatic Style; Verdasco Advances

© Getty ImagesSam Querrey is closing on his fourth final of the summer.

One day after clinching the Olympus US Open Series, American Sam Querrey confirmed his status as one of the most in-form players on the ATP World Tour by winning the final eight points to defeat top seed Nikolay Davydenko 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in the Pilot Pen Tennis quarter-finals Thursday.

The sixth seed rallied from 15/40 down at 4-4 in the final set to win the next four points and lead 5-4, before breaking the No. 8-ranked Davydenko to love to seal a dramatic victory after one hour and 41 minutes as the Russian missed a half volley.

The 21-year-old Querrey, who will have the chance play an extra $1 million in prize money at the upcoming US Open as a result of winning the Olympus US Open Series, is through to his fifth ATP World Tour semi-final of the season.

Currently a career-high No. 23 in the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings, Querrey has now won 19 of his past 24 matches dating back to a second-round loss to Marin Cilic in five sets on his Centre Court debut at Wimbledon. The Californian reached three successive finals in July at the Campbell’s Hall Of Fame Tennis Championships (l. to Ram), the Indianapolis Tennis Championships (l. to Ginepri) and the LA Tennis Open (d. Ball) before ousting World No. 5 Andy Roddick to reach the third round of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters last week (l. to Hewitt).

Querrey, who will become the No. 2 American behind Roddick on Monday, insisted he is not feeling under pressure going into the US Open. “Obviously if you've got extra pressure on you, it's a good thing. You're doing something right. I don't really feel too much pressure. Since yesterday, I clinched the US Open Series, I kind of went out there today with no pressure, just kind of swinging away. I think that's why I started so well.

”I'm not feeling pressure. I'm just going out there, working hard, doing the things that I need to do. Whatever happens, happens. I don't really care who's putting pressure on me. I'm not playing for that person; I'm just playing for myself.”

The 28-year-old Davydenko, who captured the New Haven title in 2006 (d. Calleri), dropped to a 35-11 match record on the season. Afterwards, the Russian was disappointed with the way be had performed in the first set. “I didn't find my game in the beginning, like first set. Because if you see like only 25 minutes of the first set we didn't play so many rallies. There were only mistakes from me. I can't do anything. That's what's I know I need to do, what I need to practice already.”

Querrey goes on to meet unseeded Argentine Jose Acasuso, a 7-5, 6-4 winner over Frenchman Florent Serra. The 52nd-ranked Acasuso made a strong start to the 2009 season, reaching the semi-finals or better at all four stops of the Latin America swing including a runner-up finish in Vina del Mar (l. to Gonzalez), but had not reached a quarter-finals since.

Second-seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco had no problems in his quarter-final match, as he eased past 11th-seeded Austrian Jurgen Melzer 6-3, 6-1 in 57 minutes. Melzer had defeated Verdasco when the two players last met up three years ago - also at this event - but could not compete with the World No. 10 this time around as he dropped five of the six break points he faced on serve.

"I didn't make many mistakes. I serve better than yesterday," said Verdasco. "For me it's important to be playing better every day and to keep winning. I don't care about the result so much, just about my feelings and how I play."

The 25-year-old Verdasco also reached the hard-court semi-finals in his 2009 season opener at Brisbane, ultimately succumbing to Czech Radek Stepanek in the final, and at the Australian Open. In Melbourne, he posted back-to-back wins over World No. 4 Andy Murray and No. 6 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga before extending No. 1 Rafael Nadal to five sets in the longest singles match in tournament history.

Verdasco, also a semi-finalist last year in New Haven, said about playing Russian Igor Andreev next: "Always the matches against him that I played was really tough. Always so close. He's a great, great player. I lost against him last year in US Open, so we'll see tomorrow... I will try just my best to win the match again."

Thursday proved fourth-time lucky for Andreev as he advanced to the Pilot Pen Tennis semi-finals for the first time with a 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-3 win over Argentine Leonardo Mayer.The seventh seed, who had lost in three previous quarter-final efforts at the ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament, slipped up as he served for the match at 5-4 in the second set but recovered to seal victory in the third set after two hours and 21 minutes.

“I'm happy to be through to the semi-finals,” commented Andreev. “First time here after three quarter-finals. Was tough match today. Was not easy to come back after I had a very good chance to finish the match with two match points in the second set, and I was serving for the match. I couldn't close it. And then after all this, you just try not to think too much what happened and keep going. And happy that I won third set.”

The 26-year-old Andreev is through to his first hard-court semi-final of the season, having reached the last four already at clay-court tournaments in Casablanca (l. to Ferrero) and Gstaad (l. to Bellucci). The right-hander is looking to reach his first hard-court ATP World Tour final since finishing runner-up to James Blake at the Medibank International in 2006.