Americans Sam Querrey and Mardy Fish will meet in the final at Queen’s Club after contrasting wins on Saturday.
The seventh-seeded Querrey reached his fourth final of the season by outlasting Rainer Schuettler of Germany 6-7 (9), 7-5, 6-3. Fish upset eighth-seeded Spaniard Feliciano Lopez in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4.
All top six seeds were missing from the semifinals at Queen’s, a traditional warmup for Wimbledon, which begins June 21.
There were few rallies and even fewer openings as Querrey tackled Schuettler.
“I didn’t really think about being in the final,” Querrey said. “You can’t really control the outcome of the other matches. I’ve never seen this many upsets in one tournament before.”
Games went easily with serve until Schuettler held five set points at 5-4. After Querrey fought off that threat, he held two set points of his own in the tiebreaker, at 6-5 and 8-7. Querrey double-faulted at 9-9 and Schuettler served out the set on his eighth set point.
The second set was equally close with neither player earning a break point until, with Querrey leading 6-5, Schuettler hit a forehand long to concede the set.
Querrey then hit a backhand volley to break for a 1-0 lead in the final set and cruised from there.
Querrey won in Memphis and Belgrade and was a finalist in Houston.
It was easier for Fish, who did not face a break point against Lopez. The American broke for 4-2 in the first set with a lob and then for 4-3 in the second when Lopez netted a forehand.
Fish ousted defending champion Andy Murray in the third round.
There will be more than just prize money at stake when the two Americans play in the final.
“It’s never easy to play a friend,” Fish said. “But we’ll get out here and it will be business as usual and afterwards we’ll go to dinner. We’ll probably put dinner on the match and the winner pays.”
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