Querrey to face Chela for Houston crown

American Sam Querrey reached his first clay-court ATP World Tour final Saturday at the US Men’s Clay Court Championship in Houston with a 7-6(3), 1-6, 7-5 victory over 2009 finalist Wayne Odesnik in the semi-finals of the ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament.

In the pair’s first ATP meeting, Querrey was able to win the close encounter by breaking his countryman’s serve in the final game of the match to seal victory.

"Very happy that I won; a little streaky at times," said Querrey. "It started when I was down a break in the third at 1-0. I started to pick it up a little; started to hit my forehand a little bigger, especially inside out to his forehand.

"He knew how hard he had to work to win his service games; I had break points at 3-4, then 4-5 30-all, and then I finally got him at 5-6. I think he was feeling the pressure."

In the final Querrey will play Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela, who advanced to his first final in more than three years with a 7-5, 6-2 win over countryman Horacio Zeballos. Chela’s last final – and title – came in Acapulco in March, 2007.

California native Querrey is the third American in the past three years to feature in the Houston final and will look to become the first homegrown winner since Mardy Fish in 2006. Fish was also the last American to win an ATP World Tour clay-court title.

World No. 25 Querrey is looking to capture his second ATP World Tour title of the season after triumphing at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships (d. Isner) in Memphis in February. The 22 year old has a 3-4 record in ATP World Tour finals and reached a career-high five title matches last year (1-4 record).

Chela, who claimed six breaks of serve in his semi-final against Zeballos, won 65 percent of points on his second serve; Zeballos won just 35 percent of points on his own second serve.

Chela, 30, was appearing in his first ATP World Tour semi-final since February 2008. He has now reached his 10th career ATP World Tour final (4-5), the first since March 2007 in Acapulco where he captured his last title (d. Moya). His previous ATP World Tour final in the U.S. came on hard courts in Long Island (l. to Srichaphan) in August 2002.


Saturday, 10 April 2010

Singles - Semi-finals
[3] S Querrey (USA) d W Odesnik (USA) 76(3) 16 75
J Chela (ARG) D [6] H Zeballos (ARG) 75 62