Roundup: Querrey upsets Nadal for Acapulco title

Sam Querrey, shown in 2014, beat four top-20 players
consecutively in Acapulco. Two of them are ranked in
the top 10. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Sam Querrey completed a dream week with a 6-3, 7-6 (3) victory over Rafael Nadal tonight for the Mexican Open title in Acapulco.
   Querrey, unseeded at No. 40 in the world, beat a top-20 player for the fourth time in four days. Two of them are ranked in the top 10.
   Querrey, a 29-year-old San Francisco native, knocked off No. 11 David Goffin of Belgium, No. 9 and defending champion Dominic Thiem of Austria and No. 17 Nick Kyrgios before overpowering No. 6 Nadal.
   It was Querrey's first victory over Nadal in five career matches. Querrey also beat then-No. 1 and defending champion Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon last summer en route to his only Grand Slam quarterfinal.
   The title was the ninth of Querrey's career and equaled Memphis in 2010 as his biggest. Memphis was an ATP 500 tournament at the time but has since dropped to a 250. Acapulco also is a 500. Querrey's other seven titles came in 250s.
   Querrey became the first American to win a title in an ATP tournament above the 250 level since Andy Roddick at Memphis in 2011 and the first U.S. man to win Acapulco in the 24-year history of the tournament.
   Since the retirement of Robby Ginepri in 2015, no active U.S. man has reached the singles semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament. Ginepri lost to Andre Agassi in five sets in the 2005 U.S. Open semis.
   Nadal, seeded second, was trying to earn his third Acapulco title and his first on a hardcourt since Qatar in January 2014. He won Acapulco in 2005 and 2013 when the tournament was played on clay.
   The 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Querrey blasted 19 aces in the final and committed only two double faults. He won 81 percent of the points on his first serve (39 of 48) and 63 percent on his second serve (17 of 27). Querrey converted one of his two break points and saved all six against him.
   Querrey, who reached a career-high No. 17 in 2011, is projected to return to the top 30 when the new rankings are released on Monday.
   BNP Paribas Open --  Former Stanford star Nicole Gibbs, who reached the fourth round at Indian Wells as a qualifier last year, and 12 other players received wild cards in this year's tournament.
   Also awarded wild cards were Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Taylor Townsend, Danielle Collins, Irina Falconi, Kayla Day, Jennifer Brady, Donna Vekic, Frances Tiafoe, Stefan Kozlov, Taylor Fritz, Reilly Opelka and Bjorn Fratangelo. All except Croatia's Vekic are American.
   Women's qualifying begins Monday and first-round matches on Wednesday. Men's qualifying and first-round play start one day later.
   Pacific Coast Doubles in La Jolla, Calif. -- No. 9 seeds Jack Barber and William Genesen of Stanford defeated No. 8 Mathieu Garcia and Michail Pervolarakis of the University of Portland 2-6, 7-6 (6), 6-1 in the quarterfinals.
   Barber and Genesen will meet No. 9 Max Cressy and Ben Goldberg of UCLA today. In the other semifinal, No. 1 Lucas Gerch and Arjun Kadhe of Oklahoma State will play No. 3 Martin Redlicki and Evan Zhu of UCLA. The final also is scheduled for Sunday.
   Gerch and Kadhe beat Roy Lederman and Brandon Sutter (El Dorado Hills) 6-4, 6-0 in the round of 16 earlier today.