The U.S. Open Series, a group of tournaments climaxing with the final major of the year, commenced this week in Indy. Today, two Americans fought it out for an ATP 250 title at the Indianapolis Tennis Championships. Robbie Ginepri was victorious over third seed Sam Querrey 6-2, 6-4.
For Querrey, this was his second final in as many tournaments. Sam was looking to reestablish himself after going down to a player ranked 181 a couple weeks ago. After a comfortable service game to start out the match, with a double fault, an error and a backhand down the line winner by Ginepri, Querrey faced triple break point. Sam lost serve by making a double fault to give Robbie a 2-1 lead. As Querrey donated a few points to his cause with errors, Ginepri consolidated the break. Serving at 4-2, Robbie splayed a forehand long giving Sam a break point. However, with a couple of forehand errors from his opponent, Ginepri maintained the lead. Then, after being ahead 40-0, Sam committed some additional double faults aiding Robbie to expand his to 5-2 and to take the first set.
Although Querrey opened the second set strongly with a love service game, Ginepri also continued to play well. Querrey’s best opportunity to break presented itself with Ginepri serving at 2-3. After being down 15-40, with some winners, Sam got to deuce. Yet, with Querrey unable to clean up his errors, Ginepri held for 3 all. Then, with the score 4 a piece and leading 40-0, Querrey made a double fault and missed two forehands for deuce. Robbie went on to earn a second break point in the game when Sam misfired on a forehand crosscourt. Ginepri converted when Querrey double faulted for the ninth time. Robbie closed out the match with a love game to acquire his second Indy title.
A wildcard entrant, this was Ginepri’s first final in four years and the only bright spot to date in 2009. To say that Ginepri had been in a slump would be putting it lightly. Prior to this week, Ginepri’s record this season was 4-13. Moreover, Ginepri had been absent for three months due to recuperating from appendicitis surgery. Both Americans will see a rise in their rankings. Ginepri will go up from 95 to 58 while Querrey will be at his highest level 31 from 37.
Under the ATP World Tour’s special exempt policy, a player who would normally have to qualify to get into the main draw automatically makes his way into the tournament if they are still involved in Saturday play at the previous week’s event. By reaching the semi-finals in Indianaplois, Ginepri automatically secured himself a spot in the main draw at next week’s event in LA. At the LA Tennis Open, Ginepri has drawn Marat Safin for his opening match.
