McEnroe on Querrey: Let the Good Times Roll

Sam Querrey, the blustry 19-year-old from Thousand Oaks, goes into next week's U.S. Open unseeded and in line to play sixth-seeded James Blake in a third-round matchup. Which, to John McEnroe, only makes sense.
"It's fitting because they seem to play each other in every tournament," said the CBS tennis analyst who'll be in Flushing, N.Y., to call the action the next two weeks.
Two weeks ago in Cincinnati, Querrey was happy with his performance in a 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 loss to Blake in the quarterfinals. Three weeks before that, Querrey had 34 aces in a 7-6 (6), 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4) win in the quarterfinals at Indianapolis -- Querrey's first win against a top 10 player.
"He's got a lot of game and the hardcourt is definitely his best surface," McEnroe said of Querrey. "The first six months of the year he stumbled while he was attempting to learn how to play on clay and grass, but he's found his game and he's letting it all hang out.
"He's dangerous. The question is how fit is he now? I saw him fade after two or three sets in the past. I suspect he's in better shape, but he needs to be to get past the third round and have any real chance."
When told that Querrey pulled out of the New Haven event this week so he could rest up for the U.S. Open, McEnroe called it "a good play for him. Since everyone else is doing it, he might as well join the lest and take a week to get fresh."
Mary Carillo, McEnroe's TV tennis foil, said she saw the rolicking Querrey-Blake match in Cincinnati played before more than 10,000 and had to laugh when Querrey was asked afterward what the biggest crowd he'd ever played before that night.
"Without a blink, he said, '8,242,' making up some bogus number," said Carillo, laughing. "He's got a nice vibe around him. He's very low key, but very funny and casual. It's like having a surfer on tour all of the sudden."
TV coverage of the U.S. Open starts Monday at 8 a.m. on USA Network, which is doing more than 100 hours (almost all live) over 12 days. CBS, with Dick Enberg as the main broadcaster, has 37 hours, mostly on the weekend afternoon events, including the men's final (Sept. 9) and women's final after the two men's semis (Sept. 8). As it did a year ago, DirecTV will expand on USA Network coverage with an an interactive package of outer-court matches during the first week that will exceed 300 hours of action and give viewers up to five live matches at a time.