DUSTIN BROWN FINISHES OFF SAM QUERREY, & RAM ADVANCES TO NEWPORT SEMIFINALS BY RICKY DIMON

Written by: Staff on 16th July 2015

DUSTIN BROWN FINISHES OFF SAM QUERREY, & RAM ADVANCES TO NEWPORT SEMIFINALS BY RICKY DIMON

Dustin Brown of Germany in action against Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan during their first round match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 30 June 2015. EPA/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA |

After getting rained out late in the third set the previous evening, Dustin Brown completed a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 victory over Sam Querrey at the U.S. Hall of Fame Tennis Championships on Thursday.

Brown was already leading 4-3 when play had to be stopped, so he came back out needing just two service holds. The German almost sealed the deal with one hold followed by a break, but Querrey fought off a match point to reach 4-5. Brown quickly served out the proceedings with ease one game later.

“It wasn’t easy coming back today, knowing all I had to do was to hold serve,” said the man who upset Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon two weeks ago. “I definitely hit a lot of serves during my warm-up. Having been on the tour for a while, I’ve run into these types of situations before. There no use thinking about whether we could have finished the match last night. All you can do is to stick with it and warm up the serve. I’m happy that I kept it together.”

Brown will look to keep it going on Friday against Ivo Karlovic. The head-to-head series stands at 2-1 in favor of Brown even though he fell to the 6’11” Croat 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-2 five months ago on the hard courts of Delray Beach. A pair of 2014 encounters went to Brown; 3-6, 7-6(13), 6-4 in Doha and 7-6(4), 7-6(5) on the clay courts of Doha. Karlovic has broken serve five times in their three matches, while the German has earned two breaks. This will be their first meeting on grass, a surface that is conducive to both players.

Karlovic fared even better than Brown at the All-England Club, although he may not have made quite as many headlines. The 36-year-old ousted Jo-Wilfried Tsonga en route to the fourth round, at which point he succumbed to Andy Murray in four sets. Karlovic kicked off this week with defeats of Illya Marchenko and Malek Jaziri. This should be a high-quality affair decided by just a few points–likely in tiebreakers.

Ivo Karlovic of Croatia returns to Andy Murray of Britain in their fourth round match during the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 06 July 2015. EPA/ANDY RAIN

Friday’s other quarterfinal will pit Jack Sock against Jan Hernych. Interestingly, their only previous encounter also came in Newport. Hernych won a second-round showdown two seasons 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 decision. Fast forward 24 months and the Czech is now 36 years old, toiling down at No. 237 in the rankings. But it has already been a dream run for Hernych, who won three qualifying matches before taking out Tim Smyczek and Alejandro Falla. During Wednesday’s clash, Hernych saved a match point on Falla’s serve on the way to a 7-6(5), 6-7(6), 7-6(8) victory.

Sock also needed three sets in his second-rounder, as he fought past Lukas Lacko 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-4. That was preceded by a 6-2, 6-0 destruction of Radek Stepanek, so the 22-year-old American is bouncing back nicely from an opening loss at the All-England Club to Sam Groth.

They are trying to join Rajeev Ram in the semis. Ram, who ousted John Isner in a third-set tiebreaker to begin his tournament, went the distance again on Thursday. The American saved two match points in the second set before getting the best of Adrian Mannarino 2-6, 7-6(8), 7-6(2).

Ram is expected to climb at least 33 spots to No. 128 in the world.

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand.

Topics: Atp World Tour, Dustin Brown, Ivo Karlovic, Newport, Rajeev Ram, Ricky Dimon, Sam Querrey, tennis update, U.S. Hall of Fame Tennis Championships

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10sBalls_com says:

July 16, 2015 at 3:57 pm

-@DreddyTennis FINISHES OFF @SamQuerrey, & RAM ADVANCES TO #Newport SEMIFINALS BY @Dimonator- http://t.co/QktEQA9Tg6 #tennis
Dimonator says:

July 16, 2015 at 5:20 pm

RT @10sBalls_com: -@DreddyTennis FINISHES OFF @SamQuerrey, & RAM ADVANCES TO #Newport SEMIFINALS BY @Dimonator- http://t.co/QktEQA9Tg6 #ten…