Djexit

Sam Querrey was famous, or at least semi-famous, for a few things before Saturday.

There was his appearance last year on The Millionaire Matchmaker, a since-cancelled TV dating show that was described by IMDB as, “dedicated to helping wealthy and demanding men and women find the mate of their dreams.” Querrey may be wealthy, but demanding? That’s not a word many, or any, have used to describe this mellow Southern California native, who sometimes has trouble bringing himself to demand a Hawk-Eye challenge from a chair umpire.

Querrey’s second claim to fame is the series of comically low-production videos he filmed of himself pretending to be the leader of a hip-hop dance crew. They go into heavy rotation on Twitter whenever he plays. (See why here.)

And finally, for me, Querrey is famous for being the only professional tennis player I've heard sing along—falsetto, at top volume, without shame—to a Katy Perry song on the radio, while riding in a taxi.

“He’s just a really down to earth, funny, relaxed guy,” his friend, Madison Keys, said of Querrey on Saturday.

If anything, the 28-year-old, 41st-ranked Querrey has been a little too relaxed for U.S. tennis fans’ tastes over the years. What he was not famous for, before this week, was winning epic matches at Wimbledon. In fact, the All England Club had been the site of a recurring five-set nightmare for him. In 2012, Querrey lost the second-longest match in Wimbledon history, to Marin Cilic, 17-15 in the fifth. In 2014, he managed to do it all over again, squandering a match point and falling to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in another heartbreaker, 14-12 in the fifth.

If there were any lingering demons haunting Querrey at Wimbledon, though, he has exorcised them this year. In the first round, he came back from two sets down to stage an epic win of his own, 12-10 in the fifth, over Lukas Rosol. But that was just a warm-up for Saturday’s performance. On Court 1, the same court where he had failed to out-sprint Tsonga down the stretch two years ago, Querrey beat the man who no one had beaten at a major in the last 13 months, Novak Djokovic, 7-6 (6), 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (5).

“It’s incredible,” Querrey said when the two-day, four-rain-delay match was over.

He sounded only slightly more excited than he would if he had just watched a player from his favorite NBA team, the Lakers, hit a three-pointer.

But Querrey was right: This match was incredible in every way. The American was 1-8 against the world No. 1 coming in, and his career record at Wimbledon before this year was just 8-8. Djokovic, meanwhile, had won a men’s-record 30 straight matches and four straight titles at the majors. Just the day before, Roger Federer had felt the need to remind the media that no, Djokovic probably wasn’t going to go on a 200-match win streak. But even Federer probably didn’t envision that Querrey would be the man to bring Nole back to earth.

Querrey did it by serving as well as he ever has; he hit 31 aces and won 79 percent of points on his first serve. Each time he needed a bomb, he had one in his hip pocket. Querrey, who was in trouble on his serve throughout the fourth set, saved 14 of 17 break points.

“He served really well, as he usually does,” Djokovic said. “That part of his game was brutal today. He made a lot of free points with his first serve. He just overpowered me.”

“I played the break points well,” Querrey said, “and came up with the big serves.”

But Querrey also got help from Djokovic, who played one of the more strangely lackluster matches of his career; he was almost as far off the second day as he had been the first.

After losing the first set and going down a break on Friday, Djokovic essentially handed the rest of the second set to Querrey. On Saturday, his funk continued. Djokovic tried, and missed, bailout drop shots from behind the baseline. He knocked easy putaways straight back to Querrey. He was late to returns he usually rifles back. He struggled to time routine ground strokes. He had to work hard just to get himself fired up.

When Djokovic did grab the lead, at the end of the fourth set, and in the fourth-set tiebreaker, he gave it right back. He even challenged poorly, and it hurt him. When he served for the fourth at 5-4, Djokovic lost the first two points on balls that were incorrectly called out. But because he had used up all three of his challenges for that set, he had no recourse.

Afterward, Djokovic was asked if he was “100 percent healthy.”

“Not really,” he said. “But it’s not the time or place to talk about it.”

What Djokovic did say was that he's feeling burned out at the moment.

“It’s been a very successful year so far,” Djokovic said, “but a long, exhausting one, in every sense of the word. I need some rest ... Coming into Wimbledon, I knew that mentally it would not be easy to re-motivate myself... My best wasn’t enough this year.”

On Saturday, Djokovic looked and sounded and played much the same way he had when he lost in the first round in Monte Carlo in April. That time he was coming off a successful month-long stint on U.S. hard courts, where he won titles in Indian Wells and Miami. This time he was coming off a successful month-long stint on European red clay, where he won titles in Madrid and Paris.

We’re used to seeing Djokovic bounce back after a hard slog at the French and go all the way at Wimbledon, but there’s a reason why so few players have won those two events back to back—since 1980, only Federer (2009) and Rafael Nadal (2008, 2010) have done it on the men’s side. It wasn't completely surprising to see Djokovic suffer a letdown after winning at Roland Garros for the first time, and completing his long-sought career Grand Slam.

“I wasn’t feeling the ball as well as I wished,” Djokovic said, “but that’s sport.”

That was a pretty good summation of Djokovic’s day, and of the fate of all winning streaks. Eventually, a player will let his guard down. Djokovic’s came down after he lost the first set to Querrey in a close tiebreaker; after that, he couldn’t muster any fight for the next set. Once he was behind two sets to love, he had to be perfect, and that wasn’t going to happen on Saturday.

Just as there will eventually be vulnerability, there will eventually be an opponent who is ready to take advantage of it. Querrey knows about tough losses and burnout. In 2010, fed up with Europe, he bolted for home—without playing his doubles match—after losing at the French Open. The following year Querrey bottomed out at No. 93, and in 2015 he finished No. 59. He has a game that’s solid enough to make him competitive with the top guys, but not special or spectacular enough to beat them.

"I don't even know who I play next," Querrey said in the moments after his upset. For once, that line sounded totally believable. Why would he have looked past Djokovic in the draw?

This time, for once, Querrey was spectacular when he needed to be. And now he’s famous for the best reason of all.

(Headline hat tip: @thriding)