Paris, France (Sports Network) - After dropping the opening set at love,
American Sam Querrey charged back to stun Novak Djokovic, while Andy Murray
and red-hot Juan Martin del Potro avoided upsets at the $3.15 million
BNP Paribas Masters, the final ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament of
the year.
Querrey managed to win only 10 points in a 20-minute first set before fighting
back for an unlikely 0-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 victory at Bercy's Palais Omnisports.
The second-seeded Djokovic actually led 6-0, 2-0 before Querrey mounted his
comeback, which was completed in just over two hours.
The 23rd-ranked Querrey fired 18 aces and was broken only once in the upset of
the 2009 Paris Masters champion Djokovic, who was this year's Australian Open
winner and French and U.S. Open runner-up.
Djokovic learned on Monday that he will finish as the year-end No. 1 for a
second straight year. He will supplant current No. 1 Roger Federer atop the
rankings next week. Federer pulled out of this Paris event Sunday night after
losing to del Potro in the finale at the Swiss Indoors Basel.
Meanwhile, the third-seeded Murray handled oft-injured Frenchman Paul-Henri
Mathieu 7-5, 6-3 and a seventh-seeded del Potro won his 11th straight match
with a 6-2, 6-2 pasting of qualifier and fellow South American Alejandro Falla
of Colombia. Murray fired 12 aces past the wild card Mathieu.
Murray was this year's Wimbledon champion and Olympic gold medalist. Del Potro
is seeking his third title in three weeks, having titled in Vienna two weeks
ago and Basel last week.
Fourth-seeded David Ferrer avoided an upset by leveling fellow Spaniard Marcel
Granollers 6-1, 6-3. The six-time 2012 ATP champion Ferrer is fresh off his
title in Valencia in his native Spain last week.
French wild card Michael Llodra moved on by upsetting 10th-seeded American
John Isner 6-4, 7-6 (7-5). Isner fell despite striking 15 aces, but he also
had his serve broken once while failing to break the veteran left-hander
Llodra.
Meanwhile, eighth-seeded Serb Janko Tipsarevic topped Dutch qualifier Igor
Sijsling 6-4, 7-6 (7-0), ninth-seeded Argentine Juan Monaco got past
Bulgarian qualifier Grigor Dimitrov 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, and 11th-seeded Nicolas
Almagro outlasted fellow Spaniard Albert Ramos 7-6 (7-1), 6-7 (4-7), 6-3.
Also on Day 3, South African Kevin Anderson upended 12th-seeded Frenchman
Richard Gasquet 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 6-1 and France's Gilles Simon bested Romanian
lucky-loser Victor Hanescu 7-5, 6-3. Hanescu replaced last year's Paris
Masters champion Federer in the draw.
The newest Paris Masters champ will pocket $620,000.
The Sports Network