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U.S. OPEN

September 3, 2009

Sam Querrey

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

S. QUERREY/K. Kim
7-5, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. That wasn't so easy.
SAM QUERREY: No, not at all (smiling). Kevin is a tough player. He played well today.

Q. Was he disrupting your game or were you having trouble?
SAM QUERREY: I wasn't playing unbelievable. I played better this summer. But I just fought hard and I thought he played great. He was hitting his forehand exceptionally well, better than he usually does, I think. It was a tough battle out there.

Q. What got you through?
SAM QUERREY: Uhm, you know, I don't really know actually. I just wanted to win that badly. When it got close there in the fourth set, I kind of willed my way through it and did the little extra I needed to do to break at the end.

Q. How much of the success you've been having during the summer accounts for having that belief and push and drive to do that and come through?
SAM QUERREY: I think a lot of it. You know, I had a lot of tough matches this summer that I got through. That kind of reflects and helps me out, you know, when you get into a four- or five-setter here. I think it definitely helped.

Q. There's some talk about an American bounce-back in terms of our place in tennis. Do you have any feel for that? Do you think there's something to that?
SAM QUERREY: Yeah, I think we've got a shot. We've got Andy who has been in the top 10 for almost 10 years. Hopefully James can get back up there. Hopefully Mardy can get healthy. I'm climbing up the rankings. John Isner is doing really well. Jesse Levine is in the second round. Jesse Witten is in the third round. There's a big group of us here.
Hopefully everyone won't just do well this week, they'll do well throughout the year and we can bounce back. I think we can make it like it once was in the '90s.

Q. Is there any sense at all maybe a little bit of momentum is going here?
SAM QUERREY: I think so. You know, everyone cheers for each other. But at the same time everyone wants to be better than the other one. When you see Andy win, or when I see Andy win or James win or Isner win or Ginepri or whoever, I'm happy for those guys, but at the same time I want to be the highest-ranked American. I think all those guys feel the same way too.
The more they win, I think it's going to push -- the more it's going to push the other guys to win.

Q. Is being able to will yourself to get through a match and win it part of the process of getting to the next level?
SAM QUERREY: Definitely, yeah. You're not going to go out there and play your best every day. The best guys find ways to win even when their A game is not working. I think sometimes you got to get out of your comfort zone and just do things and just do whatever you can basically to win. That's kind of what it was today.

Q. Could you describe what the successes you've had over the summer, how they help you right now, how you feel right now compared to ever having going into a Grand Slam tournament? Are you more confident now?
SAM QUERREY: Yeah, I'm very confident. I've won 21 or 22 matches since the beginning of the summer, you know, a couple top-10 wins. Every win, not even the top-10 ones, are good wins. Every win just builds my confidence that much more.
Whenever you come into a tournament, a Grand Slam, I made four finals this summer, and, you know, that helps a lot. I played a lot of pressure-situation matches, played a few top-10 opponents. I think everything helps a little bit.

Q. Do you feel your expectations of yourself are higher now?
SAM QUERREY: Not really. No, I always -- I don't really feel any extra pressure. I don't really set a goal this week to make it to a certain round. Kind of just taking it round by round and day to day, doing the best I can to get as far as I can go.

Q. If you end up winning the $2.6 million, will you buy pizza for the press corporation?
SAM QUERREY: I'll buy a small pizza for everyone to share, sure. Take everyone out for pizza.

Q. This has been an extraordinary summer for the men in terms of matchups. The top eight in a quarterfinal, the top four in a semifinal. How do you explain that, where you see that with the men and maybe not so much with the women? What do you think that does for the tour? Does everyone benefit from those kind of matchups?
SAM QUERREY: Yeah, I mean, I think definitely for the popularity of the sport it helps when back-to-back weeks in MontrÃ©al and Cincinnati you have top eight, the top four. All those matches are all pretty good matches. I think that definitely helps the popularity when they're on ESPN, they're shown all over the world.
I think, you know, the other guys ranked 9 through 100 aren't too happy about it. They would want to be in there.

Q. Does it push you?
SAM QUERREY: Yeah, it pushes me. I think it pushes everyone else. Everyone else wants to be one of those guys. Everyone wants a shot at the year-end championships in London. So I think it's just gonna kind of make everyone work that much harder to be where those guys are at.

Q. You came into the game with power. I know you worked on your fitness. Is speed kind of the last component you can work on to make it into the top 10?
SAM QUERREY: Yeah, I feel pretty fast right now, though. There's not a ball that I'm not getting to that I think I should be getting to. But I feel like my speed, I mean, is up there. It's a strength now.
I think there's a few other things. I think the return of serve still can get a lot better. My decision-making on the court can still improve a little bit. I think I can sneak into the net a little bit more. I could be a little smarter with how I use my serve and my first-serve percentage. I want to get it in the high 60s if I can. There's a few little things I can do a little better. Speed, I think, is a strength of mine right now.

Q. One of the things that's kind of marked your public personality is how much you enjoy being where you are, doing what you're doing. As you're climbing through the rankings, are you still able to enjoy it, or is more work?
SAM QUERREY: It's more work and I'm working harder, but I'm enjoying it more. The more you win, the higher you're ranked, the better life becomes. Things are better now than they've ever been.

Q. Quick geographical question. You were being introduced as being from Thousand Oaks. I thought you were from Santa Monica. What's the truth?
SAM QUERREY: I grew up in Thousand Oaks from the time I was 10 and I moved to Santa Monica like a year ago. I moved out of my parents' house. I don't know the answer really.
Thousand Oaks is where I grew up playing. I went to junior high, elementary school, high school. That's where all my friends are. That's where my parents live.

Q. You might be the pride of Santa Monica as you get higher and higher?
SAM QUERREY: Santa Monica has a number of movie stars. I'm not really surprised (laughter).

Q. How close are you to the ocean?
SAM QUERREY: Probably a mile. Yeah, right down the street. A few beach cruisers at the house, we cruise down there.

Q. How much longer is Dan with you?
SAM QUERREY: Till the end of the year.

Q. What percentage of your prize money are you paying?
SAM QUERREY: 3%.

Q. James is a likable guy. Now that you're the second-ranked American, how hungry are you to get into the Davis Cup lineup?
SAM QUERREY: I mean, I've always wanted to be on the Davis Cup lineup. But it's been Andy, James and the Bryans. They've kind of been a team. You've got to give them their shot. James has been the one who has been on the team for the last five years. Even if we were to start the year off next year and Patrick went with Andy and James, I would understand that. I might be ranked one spot ahead of him, but he's paid his dues. He probably deserves it a little more than I do.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about the Dan situation. I know it was his idea, but you're a guy that seems to think outside of the box, set yourself up as a stock with investors. Talk about that.
SAM QUERREY: Yeah, you know, it's his idea. He's a brilliant guy. He's ahead in credits at Cornell. Scored in like the highest level you can on the LSATs, taking the fall off, trying to get the inside look at sports. He wants to be a sports entertainment lawyer. This is a good way for him to do it.
You know, it's not a lot of like -- he's not cutting deals for me or anything. It's a lot of getting sandwiches and booking flights and doing stuff like that. You know, I think he's enjoying it. I'm enjoying it a lot. It's fun to have a friend on the road, too. He's actually getting quite a lot of exposure.

Q. Any downsides?
SAM QUERREY: No, not really.

Q. After this tennis thing winds down, are you going to go into shoe design?
SAM QUERREY: Probably not. Crazy shoes. I submitted a first pair to them. They said they weren't flashy enough. Had to come up with a new one.

End of FastScripts

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