Sam Querrey beat Tommy Haas on Saturday evening at the LA Tennis Open, 6-3, 7-5. The towering American was surprisingly fleet of foot, hit serves consistently in the 130s and rushed the net when he could. It was a great win for Sam, who is now in his third straight ATP final, having played Sundays at both Newport and Indianapolis this summer. He’ll play a surprise finalist, qualifier Carsten Ball, in the final this Sunday.
It was not so great of a night for Tommy Haas, the No. 1 seed and a two time champion in LA (2004 and 2006.) Sam’s big shots kept Tommy pinned near the fence for much of the match – Haas was angry when the line judges got in his way. He failed to convert any of the 5 break opportunities he had. And the on-court conditions were driving Haas nuts – he complained after Friday’s quarterfinal that the balls were flying and he couldn’t get a good feel on the ball.
The conditions got a hell of a lot worse on Saturday.
I’m talking about Sam Querrey’s rowdy fan club, the “Samurai”, a group of his high school buddies who have been busting eardrums all summer. The Indianapolis tournament even flew them out last week in a questionable effort to boost its unpopulated tournament. The Samurai rallied Saturday night at UCLA for Querrey’s match against Haas, commandeering a corner of the small stadium. They cheered, cajoled and beat their painted chests after every point. They used a drum during changeovers.
An example of the Samurai effect: 1st set, Sam’s up 4-3 on serve. Tommy’s serving and down 30-40. The Samurai – always on their feet – link arms, sway and start a slow and steady chant before Haas steps to the line: “BREAK! BREAK! BREAK! BREAK!”
It works. Sam gets his break and serves out the first set, hitting two aces and sprinting up to a feathery drop shot on set point that Haas obviously thought he couldn’t touch.
“They were awesome.” Sam said of his Samurai after the match. “You couldn’t ask for a better group of friends and a bunch of guys who support me. They get me through a lot of the Love-40 downers and (keep me) fired up on set points.”
Tommy Haas did not find the Samurai awesome, saying the group had “no class” and behaved inappropriately: “It’s up to Sam to take control of the situation. This was not the fifth set of a US Open.“
Sam disagreed: “I think they’re pretty considerate considering none of them play tennis. They’re just fired up. It’s a home match. It’s the semifinals. It’s a night match. Yeah they get fired up, but it’s not my fault.”
To complain that the Samurai have “no class” is just stating the obvious. We’re talking about a swaggering gang of shirtless dudes in bodypaint – just add kegger. And Sam (or his intern) has obviously trained them on a few etiquette basics. I was sitting two rows away – lucky me! – and observed the group applauding Tommy’s winners every now and then. They kept their mouths shut during the points and between first and second serves. Sure, they cheered Haas’s errors, but nowadays even the players fist pump when their opponents’ double fault.
Sarah Foster, Haas’s fiance, warned ESPN’s Pam Shriver that there would be blood if the Samurai didn’t behave. I’m sure she was sharpening her knife to a deadly point all match long.
But what did the ticket-buying “neutrals” in the crowd think of Sam’s Club? I disagree with Querrey’s own appraisal that “99% of the people in (the stadium) think that they’re awesome.” A couple feisty kids and their mom got into it with the Samurai, and I detected a few sighs and shaking heads around me. Personally, the dudes got on my nerves. My ideal tennis crowd is energized, balanced in its support and respectful of the game’s sporting traditions. Like at Wimbledon. But the LA Tennis Open ain’t SW19. (Talk about stating the obvious!) And I admit that I’m a curmudgeonly tennis snob who likes her players classy and the fans wearing shirts.
“That’s why (tennis) isn’t more popular.” said Sam, reacting to the criticism. “I think if you had a group like (the Samurai) in every stadium tennis would be more popular.”
Well, what do you think?
Loading ...Here are some photos of some of the action on Saturday night:
Tags: ATP, haas, LA Tennis Open, Querrey, Samurai, tennis, US Open Series
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LOL I like the group of guys as long as they are following etiquette. Tennis is an exciting sport. I don’t like to clap when someone double faults though. I think Tennis is a “head” game. So you need to be strong and solid and unflappable, like my Rafa lol
The Samurai look like a good-natured bunch. Not the classiest, but I mean, it’s LA. What do you expect? If there’s a place to defy tennis norms, it’s definitely LA. Gotta admire the group effort. It’s all in good fun anyway. Don’t see why tennis has to be stuffy all the time.
Hmmm… tennis seems pretty popular in Spain, for example. Perhaps it would help if more Americans were contenders. Just a crazy thought.
Amen.
I’m sorry but I can’t think of a single tennis fan who became a fan of the sport because a bunch of shirtless guys were acting like obnoxious idiots in the stands.
I find it kind of ironic that Tommy Haas called their behavior “inappropriate”. I think we have all seen some inappropiate behavior on the court from Haas over the years. Also, after talking to a couple of the Samurai after the match, I found them to be a really neat group of kids. A couple of them were going to Cornell, UCSD, and UCLA. And they are actually quite laid back off the court. I think it’s great for Tennis!
Saw this match on TV and was greatly annoyed by these bunch of idiots. I’ve been to a few ATP events and a just few shouters in the crowd already pisses me off, but an entire couple of rows of rowdy idiots? These guys should be banned from stadiums. This is professional tennis, not juniors or college tennis. I hope Ball beats Querrey in final.
I hate when people use the term “class”. There is always the implication that one person is “better” that the other in some hierarchy of standards. “Class” is simply looking down on another group of people based on their (sub-)culture.
As long as the Samurai don’t shout during the point, I don’t see whats wrong. Athletes in every other professional sport have learned to ignore worse things from the crowd. This is a mental game, and Haas allowed himself to lose his head over the crowd.
I’m with you, Joe, and Haas’s “class” has slipped for me because he used the word. I can understand why people seated near the Samurai could find them annoying — I probably would myself. But I kinda love them, the Silly Boyz.
On ESPN they showed Sarah Foster turn their way and yell “SHUT UP!!!”
I like them. I would not have even watched the game had it not been for them. They got my attention when I was channel surfing last night and it made me watch the whole match. I also tuned into the final today for the same reason. Congratulations Sam and your Samurai. Its good fun.
Frankly, Querrey lost me as a potential fan when he thought it was okay to tweet “@dantheintern is searching for his first black friend” (July 12). There’s probably an in-joke or innocuous explanation for it I haven’t come across, but without any other context to go by, it hit me as clueless at best and uncool at worst.
Well I voted for annoying. I remember the French doing the same thing. Marat Safin’s last RG was memories of the crowd booing him.
They should know they shouldn’t be stepping over the line. And that line is very thin. The players aren’t the most concentrated people. Roger even asked Djokovic’s family, wearing N-O-L-E shirts and being incredibly noisy to “BE QUIET.”
It’s no biggie, but at least they should pay their respects to the opponent. Like other fans do. Tommy should’ve let their actions speak louder than his words…
Although it’s kinda interesting that there are fans like them. The crowd has a little personality to boot.
pathetic
first of all,tommy haas can act however he wants.He is the player.He is out there entertaining the crowd and making a living playing tennis.A bunch of half dressed,loud,disrespectful and immiture little boys have no business behaving that way.It is not college tennis and its not a team sport.It is one on one.The person who is most at fault is quarry.He should control his dumb friends,but he is a little boy too who hasnt been on the tour that long.Roger federer would never put up with such pathetic behavior.Im sure him and tommy haas would have nothing to do with a c level player like quarry.
I cheered for Tommy. I tried to give my very best but nobody noticed me and my friends??
How about some perspective here? Traditions are wonderful, but tennis is still just a sport, not brain surgery. What other sport requires its spectators to be totally silent DURING points and a high degree of library-like decorum even BETWEEN them? Maybe chess, but that is a very different kind of “sport”.
These guys were quiet during points, so what’s the complaining about? And when Haas says, “this was not a fifth set of US Open”, does that mean that if the crowd misbehaves in similar fashion during a fifth set of a US Open, then it’s perfectly fine with him? That does not make much sense, does it? What i would’ve loved to see Haas playing a fifth set during this coming US Open while the entire Arthur Ashe Stadium full of people are doing their best Sam-urai impression. What will he say then?
Gymnasts do not get much respect as athletes, especially in the US, but how about those situations when gymnast A is performing mind-bogglingly difficult routines where every tiny mis-step means the difference between a gold medal and a total disaster, while gymnast B is doing a completely different routine 20 feet away and being loudly cheered by the crowd in the middle of the most difficult move being attempted by gymnast A? Nobody is complaining – it’s just a part of the sport. Why should tennis players be so spoiled? Only because they are used to such special treatment.
If tennis wants to be more popular, it must become more inclusive and therefore more tolerant. If it wants to remain exclusive, then it should not complain about being less popular. You just can’t have it both ways.
By the way, my CAPTCHA phrase here is “geeks Nixon” which is kind of amusing, and i welcome all suggestions about what it may actually mean.
“Geeks Nixon” is the name of the next big pop-punk band, obviously!
Very interesting comparison with gymnastics. I’ve often wondered at the concentration of gymnast A. on the balance beam while gymnast B. is frolicking around to Flight of the Bumblebee or whatever.
It’s funny that you also mention chess. A journalist I spoke with after the match was very upset by the Samurai behavior. When I tried to defend them, she said “But tennis is like a game of chess!”
Oh well, bottom line is that nobody is going to stop a group from cheering for their favorite. The tournament won’t tell them to be quiet and neither will Sam or whatever player is lucky enough to have his or her own cheerleaders.
Anyone who has a problem with it will have to form their own (non)cheering section. Which sounds a little like a conceptual art “happening.” Where Yoko Ono when you need her?
The only real similarity between tennis and chess is that players have to anticipate their opponents’ movements and shots while also planning their own next ones. But the same can be said about many other sports (including most team sports and even such individual ones as wrestling – not the staged kind, of course – and boxing) none of which requires anything close to silence during matches. All of these sports involve mental aspects that are distantly related to chess, so there is no objective reason to single out tennis for special treatment.
The uniqueness of chess is that its mental part is in fact its essence (there are no athletic skills required to move pieces) which is not true of tennis and other sports mentioned above (where athleticism and special skills are the essence while mental part is relatively secondary). In hockey, good players anticipate movements of their teammates as well as their opponents all the time and at breakneck speeds too – while fans create deafening noises that are decidedly unfriendly to visiting teams. And nobody is complaining about that.
As a big tennis fan who knows everything about tennis, I have seen all of quarry’s matches. He is the most disrepactful and obnautious player on tour. It is totally his job to make sure that his opponent feels comfortable on the court at all times. Its not like he has a match to focus on or something. He should just tell his good friends and family members to shut their pie holes during the match. Obnoxious cheering should be limited to actress/model girlfriends who clearly know so much about the game of tennis, not these drunken fat idiots from Cornell, UCLA, and whatever lame excuses for higher edukation they got their degreez from. Tennis is not supposed to be enjoyable for anyone. If it were, their would actually be people in the stands and those poeple would be having a good time out there. Unlike this ridiculous band of miserable a-holes, who clearly have nothing better to do with their time than support one of their good friends as he fulfills a long-time dream of his. If you want to cheer for something thats fine, but go find another sport to cheer for, cause thats not what tennis is for. These guys are just lucky they’re white, cause if they were black, mexican, pacific islander, or minorities they would be stopped at the gates. what idiots. And what is the deal with the headbands that they hand out to all the little Sam fans? They are obviously part of some greater scheme to either choke the life out of these poor kids or worse, to turn these adorable little children into drunken fat fools like the Samurai. And dont get me started on the Samurai T-shirts that were being sold for charity. Do these kids have no boundaries???
cheer and support all you want but have some class and respect for the other player which these douche bags clearly dont have.Dont yell during the point.And dont scream BREAK BREAK BREAK in the other players ear.GIve me a break.IT was so unpleasant to watch this match.I had a migraine half way through.These kids should spend their summer getting a job.It might be a bit more productive then following around this tennis player and acting like drunk fools.Their parents must be so proud.And i agree with the above statement that quarry is the most at fault.Im sure hes not so popular in the locker room.
carston,you are obviously the mother of one of these fat slobs.For your information,tennis is a quiet sport.It has tradition.It has class.Your son and his dumb friends wouldnt be allowed in the gates at wimbledon.The US Open is a giant stadium and loud cheering MAY be a bit more appropriate then a small venue like ucla.Those kids are out of line.Cornell and ucla is really paying off.I went to ucla and my summers were filled with internships,not running around naked and with body paint yelling like dogs.And in my opinion,the actress/model girlfriends on the tour know much more about tennis then these clowns.They know to keep their mouths shut during points and to not cheer for errors.Have a nice day!
Mark,just so u know….people arent yelling “Fall,Fall,fall,fall…….FALL OFF” while girls are on the balance beam in the olympics.People are respectful.But nice try attempting to compare the two.
The point is that gymnasts, just like most other athletes, are able to concentrate on what they are doing in spite of loud interference – and there is no objective reason why tennis players should not be able to do the same.
Just a brief clear-up. Head of the Samurai #1 has played tennis his whole life and plays competitively for UNLV. Almost all of the others play tennis as well. I’m pretty sure they know more about tennis than Sarah Foster.
“My summer was filled with internships, why weren’t theirs? Look at me”. Hm, funny, cause head of the Samurai #2, the one who goes to a small dumb school on the east coast known as Cornell, is actually interning for Querrey as we speak, has been the whole summer and is so ahead of credits that he is taking the fall semester off to extend the internship.
And speaking of which, it’s funny David that you try to tout your superiority over these guys, how you went to UCLA and received internships (congrats!!!), yet you follow up that sentence with “…know much more about tennis then these clowns.” Wow David, UCLA must have really slipped up when forgetting to teach you that the word “then” is used to indicate an occurrence in reference to a point in time, not when comparing two things. The word “than” would be used in that case. But I’m sure that internship worked out really well for you!
I also don’t quite understand why you people, who state numerous times that you were at the match, ridicule the Samurai for being there, furthermore stating that they should have “something better to do”. As if somehow attending the LA Open is an activity one would do when bored. You guys were there, too, just in case you’d forgotten that midway through your stream of incoherent (and borderline retarded) thoughts.
And lastly, at the end of the day you are all just on a website pounding out your frustrations to a bunch of people whose minds you won’t change. Just like you won’t change mine, I won’t ever be able to change yours. You act like you guys have some high level of importance, yet all you’ve proven you do is spend your days with your eyes glued to a computer screen venting about a group of teenagers who are more than likely out doing their summer jobs as we speak. Maybe they took a day off work to watch their good friend play competitive tennis at a big name tournament while he was in the area? Just like you all would likely take a day off work to, you know, spend your time brainstorming new derogatory words to call the Samurai on your internet blog, in hopes that one day these “clowns, punks, frat boys, drunkards, racists, etc” (none of which they actually are) will decide that reading posts on the internet is what they should do with their time and be traumatized by your mildly offensive, and not at all childish, insults. I guess all you guys are really hoping for is that they too will throw away their lives one day and dedicate it to fixing the world of Tennis, one super-meaningful blog post at a time. Maybe if those darned Samurai didn’t spend so much time attending professional tennis matches and traveling the country to see their favorite player (and good friend) play, and instead spent all that time sitting on a website waiting for someone to disagree with them, and then poorly attempting to rip whatever they say apart (at 7 AM, mind you), maybe then we could all relate to them and realize that they are productive human beings (or cannibals, aborigines, beasts, homo erectus, centaurs, or whatever else you guys label them as). But until they’re blogging on a yahoo sports article that nobody even cares about, I really can’t defend them in having lives.
Just really hoping your dreams come true, that these Samurai all get yahoo accounts and unite one morning at dawn, for the most epic yahoo sports post battle of all time with all of you. But until then, I guess all we really can do is sit here and wait, popcorn in hand, and click refresh until we realize that we’re all just pathetic. Or, even go attend a tennis match (but only if we’re -really- bored).
Check and mate.
Hahahaha I love the comment about the kids being fat disgusting slobs. Clearly this person did not bother taking a look at their picture near the top of the article…
You may have solid arguments for annoying and obnoxious, but calling them fat and disgusting is a little ridiculous.