Murray’s biggest hurdle here is his ankle, not just Sam Querrey.
The Briton tweaked his ankle during his straight-sets (6-3, 6-0, 6-2) win in the second round versus 19-year-old Andrey Rublev. But Murray fought through it and had one of the most dominant and cleanest games of his career. He won 77 percent of his first serve points, 68 percent of his second serve points and nearly 50 percent of his return points without having to deal with a single break point.
Thus, Murray, a five-time finalist in Melbourne and a three-time Grand Slam champion, should be primed to advance into the next round as long as his ankle doesn’t hinder his play. He carries an excellent head-to-head record with Querrey, who’s only managed to win once in seven meetings against the current World No. 1.
Querrey is ever so familiar to being the underdog. And in fact, he probably relishes being in that kind of situation.
The 31st-seeded American is coming off a straight-sets (7-6 (5), 6-0, 6-1) victory over 17-year-old Alex De Minaur in the previous round. Querrey faced some resistance in the opening set but eventually took control of the match with his powerful serves. He won 93 percent of his first serve points and fired a total of nine aces and 32 winners.
If Querrey gets his service game clicking again, while also, hopefully, limits his errors, we might witness a huge upset here. It wasn’t long ago when he did just that in last year’s Wimbledon, where he ousted then-No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the third round.
