New York • Sam Querrey was about as perfect as can be en route to becoming the first American man in the U.S. Open quarterfinals since 2011.
Querrey never faced a break point and wound up with 55 winners and only eight unforced errors while easily beating 23rd-seeded Mischa Zverev of Germany 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 on Sunday night.
“I thought I played really well. I kind of couldn’t have done anything better out there,” the 17th-seeded Querrey told the crowd in his on-court interview. “I kind of was in the zone.”
Sure was.
Hit delivered 18 aces and needed only 77 minutes to finish off Zverev, a left-hander who had that shoulder treated by a trainer during the match.
Querrey, a 29-year-old from California, reached the first Grand Slam semifinal of his career at Wimbledon in July, knocking off 2016 champion Andy Murray in the process.
Qurrey has now won 16 of his past 19 matches overall.
If he can beat 28th-seeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa next, Querrey would give the host country its first male semifinalist at Flushing Meadows since Andy Roddick was the runner-up in 2006.
As it is, Querrey is the first U.S. man to get to the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open since Roddick and John Isner did it in 2011.
Roddick was the last American man to win any Grand Slam singles title, winning the championship in New York in 2003.