Sam Querrey smashes rackets and wins

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Second-seeded Sam Querrey, the defending champion at the Farmers Classic, called himself ‘Debbie Downer’ on Friday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. And that was after Querrey, 22, beat 34-year-old Rainer Schuettler of Germany, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (7), in the day’s first quarterfinal.

A disgruntled Querrey, who had returned to the courts after his first match here, a second-round win over Kevin Anderson on Wednesday night, and angrily hit practice serves late into the night with a small crowd gathered to see how angry Querrey might get, described himself as ‘a mental head case’ during the third set Friday, especially when he was saving seven break points.

Schuettler also noticed Querrey’s unhappy mood.

‘I mean, he broke two rackets. Of course I noticed,’ Schuettler said. Besides the ‘mental head case’ comment, Querrey said, ‘I was going to myself, ‘What am I doing out here? I don’t want to be out here. Get me off the court, I’m not enjoying it.’ ‘

In addition to getting mad at himself, Querrey became more aggressive late in the match.

‘I took some chances,’ he said, ‘especially with my forehand.’

Because of that, Querrey will play against either third-seeded Marcos Baghdatis or sixth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic on Saturday in a semifinal match.

-- Diane Pucin