Buoyed by his hard-fought win over Frenchman Julien Benneteau on Monday to record his first main draw victory on home soil, Australian Marinko Matosevic has continued his winning run today, taking out Sam Querrey in three tightly fought sets 5-7 7-6(3) 6-4.
On paper, the match always looked set to go down to the wire with both players boasting powerful serves and big baseline games – perhaps the only notable difference being that Querrey’s forehand is his major weapon while the Matosevic backhand is arguably the stronger flank.
The pair met twice in 2013, on both occasions providing the crowd with entertaining three-set duels and splitting the honours with a victory each.
Following his first-round victory here in Brisbane, Matosevic acknowledged the local crowd support, and perhaps struck the first blow on Tuesday night when Wednesday’s match was rescheduled to Pat Rafter Arena following the shock withdrawal of Ashleigh Barty from the women’s singles.
As it was, he took full advantage of the vocal crowd, revving them up at every opportunity and giving them plenty of fuel for the fire.
Matosevic looked on top early after setting up a number of opportunities, however, he was unable to capitalise and a loose service game at 5-6 saw him relinquish the opening set.
After a few long glances towards coach Mark Woodforde, he steeled himself, and despite surviving a scare midway through the second set where he was forced to save a string of break points, he secured it in a tiebreak to push the match into a decider.
He held sway early in the final set, breaking the American for the first time since the pair traded breaks early in the match, and pushed out to a 3-0 lead.
Despite Querrey fighting his way back, Matosevic was now in full flight, and with the crowd behind him, he rolled home to an emphatic victory, setting up a tantalising quarterfinal clash with either Brisbane debutante Roger Federer or Jarkko Nieminen.
After the match, the twenty-eight year-old Matosevic said he felt he was continuing to improve with age, and cited players such as Federer and Nieminen – along with Lleyton Hewitt – as inspirations.
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