Querrey leads Klahn at Wimbledon; play halted

San Francisco native Sam Querrey, playing at Indian Wells in
March, led Stanford graduate Bradley Klahn 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-1,
6-5 in the first round of Wimbledon when rain halted play.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   Here's a shocker: Wimbledon's opening day was suspended by rain.
   At least the precipitation waited until the evening to fall, allowing 57 of 64 scheduled matches to be completed. 
   One exception was the contest between Sam Querrey and Bradley Klahn, both of whom have strong Northern California ties.
   Querrey, a 26-year-old San Francisco native and former Sacramento Capital in World TeamTennis, led Klahn, a 23-year-old Stanford graduate from Poway in the San Diego area, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-1, 6-5 when play was halted.
   The match is scheduled to resume on Tuesday, with the winner likely meeting 14th-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France. Tsonga, a Wimbledon semifinalist in 2011 and 2012, leads Austrian veteran Jurgen Melzer 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 5-4.
   Melzer, a 33-year-old left-hander, reached a career-high No. 8 in the world in 2011 and won the Wimbledon men's doubles title in 2010 with Philipp Petzschner of Germany.
   Also scheduled for Tuesday is a first-round encounter between Dmitry Tursunov, a Russian based in the Sacramento suburb of Granite Bay, and Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan. They will meet for the fifth time this year and seventh overall. Istomin has won the last three matches to even the series. 
   The forecast for Tuesday is partly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of rain. Wednesday and Thursday should be dry, but the likelihood of precipitation rises to 30 percent on Friday and 60 percent on Saturday.
   The 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Querrey, who turned pro out of Thousand Oaks High School in the Los Angeles area in 2006, is playing at Wimbledon for the seventh year. His best result at the All England Club is a fourth-round appearance in 2010.
   Klahn, a 6-foot (1.83-meter) left-hander, is making his Wimbledon main-draw debut after graduating from Stanford in economics is 2012.
   Querrey is 34-22 lifetime on grass, including a semifinal showing at Eastbourne last week. Klahn is only 0-2 on the surface, losing in Wimbledon qualifying last year and to Tursunov in Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, last Monday.
   Klahn and Querrey are ranked fourth and sixth, respectively, in the United States. Klahn is No. 73, and Querrey is No. 77 after climbing to a career-high No. 17 in 2011.
   Querrey is 1-0 lifetime against Klahn, winning in four sets in the opening round of the 2010 U.S. Open. Klahn had received a wild card for winning the NCAA singles title as a sophomore that year.