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PILOT PEN TENNIS PRESENTED BY SCHICK

August 27, 2009

Sam Querrey

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT

S. QUERREY/N. Davydenko
6-3, 3-6, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Sam goes into first place in the US Open Series standings and is guaranteed a bonus prize of at least $15,000 at the US Open. Sam also will move to the No. 2 American in the 2009 South African Airways ATP Rankings when they're released on Monday. Questions, please.

Q. Have you had a chance to think about what that means now, to go behind Roddick at the Open?
SAM QUERREY: I mean, that doesn't mean a whole lot to me, being the No. 2 American. I wish James, I wish he had a little better year so he could still be in the top 10.
To me, that's not really that important.

Q. Run me through what you're thinking. You had such a great match. You're down 15-40 on your serve.
SAM QUERREY: Just took a couple deep breaths, really focused on my first serve. Fortunately hit two big first serves in there. You know, you see that a lot. When you save breakpoints, that next game a lot of times you see guys with breakpoints, they go ahead and convert the break. That's kind of what happened.

Q. They weren't nearly as boisterous as L.A., but you had some Samurai guys up there. Talk about the whole fan club phenomenon.
SAM QUERREY: That's one of my best friends in Los Angeles, Shane Poppen and his friends. They live here in New Haven. They can't go Samurais. We've got that patented. They would go Sam, so that's pretty cool. They're like cousins of the Samurais.

Q. Can you talk about how your serve is really a weapon for you, how much confidence you have.
SAM QUERREY: Yeah, I mean, it's always been a weapon. I think lately I've been throwing in a lot more variety and it's paying off. I used to kind of just do everything 130. Now I'm throwing in the kick serve sometimes on the first serve to throw guys off guard a little bit, a fake kick. Sometimes I'm adding the body serve in a little more.
You know, I'm not hitting it any harder than I used to, but I'm hitting my spots a little more and using a little more variety.

Q. Nikolay is such a great baseline player. Obviously you rely on your serve a lot. What else did you do because of how he plays to counter that today?
SAM QUERREY: Uhm, I just tried to stay in the long points when I could. If you win some long like 15-, 20-rally baseline points against guys like that, I think it really hurts them. They say, All right, he's bombing serves, but he's willing to stay in long baseline rallies with me. I think that can be intimidating. I thought I won a couple long ones today.
Sometimes I think guys like Davydenko, Nadal, when they see that, it's tough for them.

Q. He said you have a better forehand now, you're actually hitting winners with it. Have you done something with that? Are you hitting the ball a little bit better?
SAM QUERREY: My forehand, I feel like it's always been pretty big, it's always been a weapon. But it's getting better and better. I played him like two and a half years ago. I've come a long way since then.
But, yeah, I mean, every day my forehand feels better. It's my biggest weapon. Maybe that and my serve, they're both pretty close. It's feeling good right now.

Q. He also said you're running better. Is that a result of fitness or better court awareness out there?
SAM QUERREY: A combination of both. A lot of it's fitness, off-court work. A lot of it's just playing a lot of matches. You get fitter when you're playing matches. Like you said, I'm learning to anticipate a little better. That makes you look faster. I think Federer anticipates better than anyone. That makes him look like he's not even trying out there and he's getting every ball.

Q. He also said your play is kind of an all American style right now. I'm not sure what he meant, but do you see similarities in the top Americans' games that you would be lumped together?
SAM QUERREY: Uhm, a little bit. A lot of it depends upon your body type. You know, you take Roddick, myself, Mardy Fish, John Isner, we're all 6'3" or taller. We're going to go big serve, big forehand. You have a guy like James, he doesn't quite have the serve, but he's got a return. Same with Robby Ginepri. They're more kind of return and speed and craftiness. A little bit of it depends kind of on your body type.
For the most part I think most Americans, you know, rely on big serve and they're looking to step up and take the first ball and whack it with a forehand or a backhand and kind of look to move forward, not necessarily come in.

Q. I don't know if you have seen the draw for the Open. If you both are able to advance, you would see Nikolay again in the third round. Would that be an advantage to either of you?
SAM QUERREY: I think you misread that. Fourth round. Yeah, I mean, it's tough to look ahead to the fourth round. You know, that could be great. I'd be stoked if I made the fourth round again. If I got a chance at Nikolay again, that would be great. I'd be going into that match with confidence, knowing that I beat him here. We each have to win three rounds before we get there.

Q. When you come out in a match, you get to serve, first two serves are aces, how does that set you up for the rest of the match confidence-wise?
SAM QUERREY: It helps a lot. I started out today, I won eight points in a row I think. I went up 3-0 really quickly. I feel like I've been starting well lately. I think in all three matches I broke early in the first set. It's nice when you come out to like a booming start like that. You know, it sets you up well confidence-wise for the rest of the match.

Q. Can you talk about expectations and pressure, the more success you have, the more expectations are put on you, how you respond to that and how you use that?
SAM QUERREY: Yeah, obviously if you've got extra pressure on you, it's a good thing. You're doing something right. I mean, 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.
You know, I'm not feeling pressure. I'm just going out there, working hard, doing the things that I need to do. You know, 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.

Q. Your assistant got some pretty big-time ink in Sports Illustrated.
SAM QUERREY: We call him an intern, not an assistant. We don't give him the assistant title (laughter).

Q. Have you teased him? Can you talk about enjoying the ride up in sports, a pretty fun thing for young guys.
SAM QUERREY: Yeah, I mean, the Sports Illustrated article started out with Dan Farrugia. He was in bold right there in the beginning. He wants to be a sports and entertainment lawyer. He wants to be involved on this side. He's taken six months off, the first semester off at Cornell, traveling with me, getting the inside look into sports. Ever since he's been with me, I've been on a tear. I kind of don't want him to leave.
It's cool. It's cool with him. He's a friend that I've got on the road. He's been here the whole time. I keep going up in the rankings. It's fun. The higher ranked you are, the more perks you get. It's more fun when you're winning a lot. So we're just having a good time.

Q. Was he the one that created this Samurai phenomenon or had that been building? It's got to be fun to see those guys chanting like crazy.
SAM QUERREY: Yeah. The Samurai started like three years ago with a couple of my friends at the L.A. Open. There's seven original Samurais, and Dan Farrugia is one of them. There's not really a leader. I mean, I guess you could say Dan, my other friend Wes and my other friend Shane, those guys are kind of the backbone. They kind of organize everything, keep everyone in line. Most of the guys have no clue about tennis. So they'll cheer out during points. They need to kind of settle them down.
But, no, it's fun. I mean, those guys out in L.A., that was awesome. There were 35 or 40 of them coming out for every match. To see them here now, it's kind of cool. It makes tennis fun, I think.

Q. Indianapolis flew a few of your friends out. Are you going to talk to Anne about getting a few more out here tomorrow?
SAM QUERREY: Maybe next year. This is a tough week because a lot of them are back in school now. And it's a long way out here. But, you know, maybe next year. Some of them are starting to graduate. If they don't have jobs, maybe they can come out here.

End of FastScripts

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