Tireless advocates for the doubles game, their energy and enthusiasm always make them fan favorites.  And Wednesday night, those fans came out to watch them take on another American, Mardy Fish, and his partner, doubles specialist, Bahamian Mark Knowles.  Fish had pulled out of the singles competition earlier this week due to fatigue and an ankle injury but stayed true to his partner for the doubles draw.  Mardy was moving well but had his left ankle tightly taped.  It was a competitive as well as a friendly match with Bob and Mardy sharing small talk and smiles from their chairs during a first set changeover.  In spite of solid play from the Fish/Knowles partnership, surrendering early breaks in each set put them in too deep a hole, and the match went to the twins, 6-3, 6-4. The brothers thanked the fans after winning, saying they get, “such great support here… we got 85 tickets for family and friends.”  And while The Bryan Bros Band has also shown off its musical chops in a couple of local clubs this week, the World No. 2 team agreed: “we know what pays the bills.”

It was truly an American affair on the grounds Wednesday night, as the red, white and blue theme continued with another native Californian, Sam Querrey, meeting his match in South Africa's Kevin Anderson, the winner to round out the bottom half of the quarterfinals.   One might assume big serving would be the order of the day, but both players found their serves deserting them at crucial moments and had to rely on plenty of big hitting from the baseline, along with some terrific touch and variety.  Anderson showed off some skills at net and Querrey snuck in a few perfectly placed drop-shots.  However, both were tight throughout the first set, particularly the defending champion Querrey, who missed an opportunity to close out the match on his serve at 6-5 as well as up 7-6 in the tiebreak.  Sam finally held his nerve, and his serve, to take that first set, only to be broken immediately at the start of the second and, unable to catch up, allowed Anderson to even the score.  Neither player ever seemed to find a rhythm until the third set, when shots finally began to click for the American and Anderson was unable to find the proper reply.  Querrey took the match, 7-6(8), 4-6, 6-0.

Despite the win, Querrey was disgusted enough with his performance to retreat directly to the grandstand court and bang out serves for 15 to 20 minutes.   He will face Rainer Schuettler on Friday and is likely hoping the extra practice will help.

Intro lyrics from “We’re an American Band” by Grand Funk Railroad

Photos by Danielle Lescure