Querrey, Fish carry hopes of U.S. at Open

Tennis: Sam Querrey wants to put the “U.S.” back in the U.S. Open.

It’s been seven years since a man from the United States won the country’s most important tennis tournament. Indeed, it’s been that long since an American man won any Grand Slam singles title.

Cheered on by a boisterous, partisan crowd, the 20th-seeded Querrey beat 14th-seeded Nicolas Almagro of Spain 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 Sunday to reach the fourth round at Flushing Meadows in New York for the second time in three years.

Of 15 Americans that entered the tournament, there are two who are still around for the fourth round – Querrey and No. 19 Mardy Fish – after No. 18 John Isner lost to No. 12 Mikhail Youzhny of Russia 6-4, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (5), 6-4 despite hitting 33 aces Sunday night.

Isner, best known for winning the longest match in tennis history at Wimbledon in June, got broken early in each of the first two sets, then was down 5-1 in the second, before making things interesting. But Youzhny came up with one of his five aces to end the third-set tiebreaker, then broke the 6-foot-9 Isner again early in the fourth. Youzhny heads to the U.S. Open’s fourth round for the first time since he was a semifinalist in 2006.

Querrey never has been to the quarterfinals at a major tournament, nor has his next opponent, No. 25-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland.

Wawrinka upset No. 4 Andy Murray of Britain 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-3 in the only significant surprise on a day that saw No. 1 Rafael Nadal and four other Spaniards advance: No. 8 Fernando Verdasco, No. 10 David Ferrer, No. 23 Feliciano Lopez, and unseeded Tommy Robredo.

Murray alone bears the burden of Britain’s hopes for its first male Grand Slam champion since 1936.

He served poorly against Wawrinka, putting only half of his first serves in and getting broken eight times. Now Wawrinka will attempt to solve the serve of Querrey, who hit 19 aces at up to 137 mph and never was broken by Almagro.

“He’s very dangerous on this surface,” Almagro said. “He’s in top form right now.”

Fish won Saturday to earn a spot in the fourth round, where he will take on No. 3 Novak Djokovic of Serbia.

There is only one American woman left, and it’s seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams, who struggled with her serve and kept yanking at the hemline of her red, sequin-dotted dress but eventually solved 16th-seeded Shahar Peer 7-6 (3), 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals in New York for the 10th time.

Williams next faces reigning French Open champion Francesca Schiavone, a 6-3, 6-0 winner against 20th-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Defending champion Kim Clijsters easily got past former No. 1 and 2008 French Open champion Ana Ivanovic 6-2, 6-1 Sunday.

Basketball: Turkey used a 21-4 run spanning the second and third quarters to eliminate France from the basketball world championship with a 95-77 win in Istanbul.

Phoenix Suns forward Hedo Turkoglu scored 20 points and Sinan Guler added 17 for Turkey, which made 35 of 55 from the field in the round of 16 game.

Boris Diaw of the Charlotte Bobcats led France with 21 points, and Nando de Colo added 15.

• Slovenia trounces Australia: Jaka Lokovic scored 19 points and Slovenia hit 16 of 33 3-pointers to eliminate Australia 87-58 in the round of 16 at the basketball world championship.

Lokovic’s corner 3-pointer in the game’s opening seconds sparked a 12-0 run and Slovenia never looked back.

Primoz Brezec of the Milwaukee Bucks had 12 points and Goran Dragic added 10 points and eight assists for Slovenia.

Australia didn’t score until Joseph Ingles’ layup 4 1/2 minutes into the game. Ingles and Patrick Mills, of the Portland Trailblazers, had 13 apiece for Australia.

Former Washington State Cougar Aron Baynes also chipped in two points and steal for his native Australia.

Miscellany: Japanese teenager Shoya Tomizawa died after he crashed and was hit by two other riders during a Moto2 race at the San Marino Grand Prix Misano Adriatico, Italy, in the sport’s second fatality in eight days.

The 19-year-old Tomizawa lost control of his bike and hit his head on the track as his bike flipped over. While on the track, he was hit at full speed by riders Alex De Angelis and Scott Redding.

A statement on the MotoGP website said Tomizawa died of cranial, thoracic and abdominal trauma.

Italian news agency ANSA reported that Tomizawa was in a coma when he was flown by helicopter to a hospital.

The races continued and the riders were only informed of Tomizawa’s death afterward.

Officials said they decided not to cancel the race due to the fear of other accidents if a red flag was suddenly shown.

There have been 46 recorded deaths in MotoGP since the series was founded in 1949.

Before 2010, Japan’s Daijiro Kato was the last rider to die from an accident. He crashed during the first race of the 2003 season, at Suzuka in Japan, and died following two weeks in a coma.