I've been a fan of Sam and followed his progress for quite a while now, and I thought that he deserved his own thread. Last he year he came through a tough draw to win the title at the Bronx Challenger. This season he successfully qualified for the Aussie Open, beating the Ukrainian Dogpolov 14-12 in the 3rd set in his extraordinary final round qualifying match. In his maiden appearance in the main draw of a grand slam, he beat Brzezicki to reach the 2nd round. He also came through the qualifying draw at San Jose.
He is currently participating in the qualifying draw at Key Biscayne. He has just beaten 'El Polaco' Brzezicki 7-6(1) 6-3, in a re-match of their 5 set tussie at Melbourne. In order to reach the main draw, he will have to beat Guccione, which will be a very tough task for him.
Way to go Sam . This will the 2nd appearance of his career in the main draw of a masters series series event, after IW 2006 when he received a wildcard. When the qualifiers are placed hopefully he'll get a generous draw.
Sam won 7-6(2) 6-2 :bigclap:, and he will face last year's runner-up Canas in the 2nd round.
This is the first time in his career that he has progressed into the 2nd round of a masters series event, which is another nice accomplishment for him this season.
I saw Sam live at the Vancouver Challenger in 2006, and I've supported him ever since. I spoke to him briefly and he seemed like a really nice guy. His 1st serve looked pretty good, as did his forehand, and he was solid and defended well from that side. He struggled to generate enough depth from his backhand wing, hitting them short and allowing his opponent to take control of the rally. Since then, aside from some of his matches at the Dallas Challenger (the streaming and coverage of that event is excellent compared to other challenger events), I haven't really had more of chance to get a look at him in action.
His match against Canas is scheduled for 4th on the Grandstand court tomorrow. Good luck to him :rocker2:.
That's a pity for Sam. He was close to pulling off a major upset there. I'm pleased that he was able to make the contest so competitive, and gave a top quality opponent a major scare.
He won 3 matches at Key Biscayne, and should be pleased with his efforts.
Sam is the top seed at the Mexico City Challenger on hardcourts, which starts this week.
He will face the 23 year old Mexican wildcard entry Daniel Garza in the 1st Round. They've played each other once before in a Futures match in 2006, with Sam winning in straight sets.
He beat Garza 6-0 5-7 6-3 in his opening match.. Sam is ranked 540 places above Garza, although that gulf obviously went out of the window today, and it sounds like he was given a stern test by the local wildcard in the last 2 sets.
In the 2nd round he will face Nicholas Monroe. He is 26 years old and currently ranked at no. 344. He had a pretty successful college career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has won quite a few futures titles during his career, but hasn't really made much of an impact at challenger level. Sam has played him 3 times before with all of those matches at futures level, and won in straight sets each time.
Sam beat Monroe 6-4 7-5 in his 2nd round encounter, and Alberto Francis 6-2 5-7 7-6(3) in his QF yesterday, to book his place in the semi-finals. He will face the Sampras slayer Bastl for a place in the final today.
Sam is through to the 5th challenger final of his career following his 6-2 1-6 6-2 victory over Bastl. He will face Olejniczak tomorrow. Good luck to him :rocker2:
Sam lost 6-4 6-3 in the final today. Ah well he still had a good week though.
He is the 6th seed at the Baton Rouge challenger next week. He will face Brendan Evans in the 1st round. That is a tricky draw for him, and playing in back to back weeks is always difficult.
Brendan beat Sam in 3 sets and bagelled him in the 2nd set at Dallas earlier this year.
Sam fought back to win an extremely hard fought contest against Evans 5-7 6-4 6-4 in the 1st round at Baton Rouge. To be honest, I wouldn't have been surprised at all if Sam had lost yesterday, and I'm not expecting much from him this week, but hey hopefully he can continue to prove me wrong.
Sam lost 6-3 6-4 to Kuznetsov yesterday. That isn't overly surprising or disappointing and I thought that he would lose to Evans in the 1st round this week.
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