‘Poetry In Motion’: Honouring Sam Querrey | ATP Tour

Sam Querrey remembers a moment in his hotel at the 2007 Australian Open, when he was a 19-year-old first embarking on his professional career. When he walked into the elevator, World No. 1 Roger Federer was there.

“I remember he introduced himself to me. He said, ‘Hey Sam, Roger, welcome to the Tour’, something along those lines. ‘It’s good to see you here’,” Querrey remembered. “It was pretty cool for a guy like that to come up to a new player like myself.”

It was a pinch-me moment for the teenage Querrey, a recognition of his arrival on the circuit. More than a decade later, following his first-round loss at the US Open against Ilya Ivashka, the American’s illustrious career has come to a close.

Querrey retires having lifted 10 ATP Tour singles trophies, climbed to a career-high No. 11 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings and earned 23 victories against Top 10 opponents.

“My body is getting a little tired. I’ve been at the US Open since 2006. I’ve got two little kids. I want to go do something else,” Querrey said. “I want to test my mind somewhere else and try something new. It feels like this is the right time.”

The Californian turned professional in 2006 and never looked back. From those early days, those around Querrey knew he was bound for success. Countryman Steve Johnson remembers his friend was a local star as a junior.

“He was always somebody that every kid my age or younger looked up to. He was always the best in Southern California. He was the best growing up,” Johnson said. “You always looked to Sam as somebody who was not only a great junior tennis player and a great tennis player, but he was always fun to be around. He always had a smile. He was always just somebody we all looked up to.”

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Querrey first cracked the Top 100 the week after he met Federer in January 2007 and claimed his first ATP Tour title in Las Vegas in 2008. At 6’6”, his powerful game quickly proved tough for players of all levels to deal with.

But in September 2009, everything changed. In Bangkok, he sat on a glass table to tie his sneaker and fell through it. A piece of glass was lodged his arm and ripped a muscle.

“Luckily it missed the nerve,” Querrey recalled. “I had surgery, recovered, regrouped and 2010 was one of my best years. Fortunately that’s behind me and I was able to recover in an even better way and was basically injury-free for the better part of my career.”

Querrey…