The 2012 Farmers Classic has been set; southern California native Sam Querrey will face off with Lithuanian Ricardas Bernakis.
Bernakis, who came through qualifying, has never been to a ATP tour level tournament. It’s really somewhat of a Cinderella story for the young Lithuanian. This afternoon at UCLA, he faced sixth seed Marinko Matosevic. Marinko had been playing quality tennis all week in LA, though it was Bernakis who outplayed and out smarted the Aussie. Marinko let his emotions get the best of him in the second set, fuming and running out of gas to be handed a breadstick (1-6). Bernakis, played an outstanding match, keeping his nerves in check and was able to close the door to reach the final.
2 time champion, Sam Querrey reaches the Farmers Classic final
Sam Querrey faced an all-court fellow American at the second Farmers Classic
semifinal, Rajeev Ram. Ram, who started the tournament a little sluggish, found his range in the following rounds. Rajeev ended Brian Baker, Paolo Capedeville, and Leonardo Mayers’ run this week. The tall American tried to play an aggressive game, coming to net and going for his shots. Unfortunately for him, it was not enough to outplay the power of Sam Querrey. The Querrey fans (also known as the “Samurai”) were being a little unruly, especially when one of them yelled out, “I didn’t see it either Ram!” after Querrey hit a 127mph ace. Ram will earn himself some nice points with his depth in this tournament, which will boost him up the rankings a bit.
Querrey, who missed last year’s Farmers Classic, didn’t seem to show any weaknesses in his game. He stuck to his guns and used his powerful serve and forehand to add up service winners as well as groundstroke winners.
Sam will now be in his third Farmers Classic final. He and Bernakis have never faced each other before, though I have the strong suspicion that Querrey will be overpowering of the Lithuanian. I don’t think it will be a total wash for Querrey, as Bernakis is a scrapper who’s got plenty of fight in him. I see this to be an entertaining match, though it’s more than likely going to be Querrey on top.
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