Friday, March 16, 2018

Querrey falls short of milestones in BNP loss

   Sam Querrey could have achieved two milestones with a victory today.
   Instead, the 30-year-old San Francisco native lost to resurgent Milos Raonic 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.
   Querrey, seeded 18th, served for the first set at 5-4 but netted a backhand volley on break point, and Raonic, seeded 32nd, capitalized.
   The 6-foot-5 (1.96-meter) Raonic blasted 17 aces in the match, and the 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Querrey had nine.
   Raonic, the 2016 runner-up to Novak Djokovic, reached the BNP final for the third consecutive year.
   Querrey, with a win, would have advanced to his first Masters 1000 (the highest level after the Grand Slams) semifinal and cracked the top 10 for the first time, jumping from No. 21 to No. 10. Querrey was No. 11 before losing in the first round at Acapulco as the defending champion in the week before Indian Wells.
    Raonic, the 2016 Wimbledon runner-up to Andy Murray, has battled injuries over the years. He had surgery on his right hip in 2011, right foot in 2015 and left wrist last year. He also struggled with a right leg injury for much of last year, missing the U.S. Open. Ranked a career-high No. 3 in November 2016, Raonic has tumbled to No. 38.
   Saturday's men's doubles final will be an all-American showdown between seventh-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan and unseeded John Isner and Jack Sock.
   The Bryan twins, former Stanford stars who will turn 40 next month, topped unseeded Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina 7-6 (5), 6-4.
   Isner and Sock dismissed third-seeded Oliver Marach of Austria and Mate Pavic of Croatia 6-3, 6-2. Marach and Pavic won the Australian Open in January.
   WTA tour -- Madison Keys and CoCo Vandeweghe, the finalists in last summer's Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, have entered the inaugural Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic at San Jose State.
   Keys defeated her close friend Vandeweghe 7-6 (4), 6-4 for the Bank of the West title. The Mubadala tournament is scheduled for July 30-Aug. 5.

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