U.S. duo in rare matchup
Querrey, Sandgren meet on Monday at Wimbledon
WIMBLEDON, England — When Sam Querrey and Tennys Sandgren play Monday on Court 12 at Wimbledon, it will be the first meeting between two American men in the fourth round or later at the All England Club in 19 years.
It’s also the first such matchup at any Grand Slam tournament since 2007.
“At least there will be one in the quarters, for sure, which is cool. I like that. I like the fact that there will be one guy pushing forward and looking to make an even farther run,” Sandgren said. “If there’s one that makes a run, that means we don’t have to hear the ‘They’re all gone by the second round’ stuff.”
Sandgren, ranked 94th, advanced Saturday by eliminating No. 12 seed Fabio Fognini 6-3, 7-6 (12), 6-3 in a match marked by Fognini’s outburst, in Italian, in which he said the All England Club deserved to be hit by a bomb.
Querrey, ranked 65th, also won in straight sets, beating John Millman of Australia 7-6 (3), 7-6 (8), 6-3 with the help of 27 aces.
“Felt great to kind of sneak by in those tiebreakers,” Querrey said.
The last time two men from the U.S. played in Week 2 at Wimbledon was 2000, when Pete Sampras beat Jan-Michael Gambill in the quarterfinals. Andy Roddick defeated Mardy Fish in the 2007 Australian Open quarterfinals.
Even though Querrey, who is from California, was a semifinalist at Wimbledon in 2017, and a quarterfinalist the year before — eliminating the defending champion en route each time — he was not expecting much of a run now.
He hadn’t won a Grand Slam match in 2019 until this week and was sidelined for a chunk of time with an abdominal injury.
Sandgren, who is from Tennessee, didn’t exactly love his own chances, either. He came into Wimbledon on a nine-match losing skid in tour-level action.
No one, he said Saturday, should have expected much from him.
“You wouldn’t have been smart if you’d done that,” said Sandgren, whose best showing at a major was getting to the 2017 Australian Open quarterfinals. “Let’s say that would have been a bad call.”
He and Querrey have never played against each other on tour, although they have practiced together.
As for how much scouting Sandgren has done during Week 1, he said with a laugh: “I haven’t watched much, but when I do watch, he hits an ace.”
COCO’S 1ST LOSS: Turns out Coco Gauff will not win every match she ever plays at Wimbledon. Yes, she’s still unbeaten in singles heading into Monday’s fourth round, but the 15-year-old American and her partner, Jay Clarke of Britain, lost in the first round of mixed doubles.
Gauff and Clark were defeated 6-1, 6-4 by Robert Lindstedt and Jelena Ostapenko.
FOGNINI: Already on Grand Slam probation, top10 player Fabio Fognini could be in more trouble after saying during his third-round match at Wimbledon on Saturday that he wanted a bomb to hit the All England Club.
During a three-set loss to Tennys Sandgren at tiny Court 14, the 10th-ranked Fognini referred in Italian to the “damned English” and said he wished “a bomb would explode at the club.”
More than 1,000 bombs fell in the area during World War II, destroying thousands of nearby homes, and 16 fell on the tournament grounds. One hit Centre Court.
At his news conference Saturday, Fognini said his comments came in the heat of the moment. He said he was upset about not playing well and the condition of the court’s grass.