Wimbledon: Sam Querrey hoping to be first U.S. semifinalist since '09

LONDON, July 5 (UPI) -- American Sam Querrey is happy to have beaten tournament top seed and world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, but he's also out to prove he's not a one-trick pony.

The Las Vegas resident will look Wednesday to become the first American man to reach the semifinal round at Wimbledon since 2009. But to get there, he needs to take out another top player -- six-seeded Canadian Milos Raonic.

Querrey's Wimbledon run has given a shot in the arm to American men's tennis, which has weakened substantially since the days of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi in the 1990s and early 2000s. In fact, no American man has won any Grand Slam title since Andy Roddick's 2003 U.S. Open victory.

Despite the drought, Querrey has been quite reminiscent of Sampras and Agassi at this year's Wimbledon tournament.

Querrey needed just two hours Monday to dispatch Frenchman Nicolas Mahut in straight sets. Three days earlier, he needed just four sets to knock off Djokovic, the world's top-ranked player who was going for the "Golden Slam" this year -- the titles of all four major tournaments plus an Olympic gold medal.

No player, male or female, has won a Golden Slam since Steffi Graf in 1988.

Serbian Novak Djokovic congratulates a victorious Sam Querrey on day 6 of the 2016 Wimbledon Championships in London, England, on July 2, 2016. Photo by Hugo Philpott/UPI

"It was exciting for me, it was exciting for everyone else," Querrey said of beating Djokovic, and then Mahut. "It was really nice to see that everyone saw it and watched and cheered along. It was an exciting kind of two-day period for me."

As the 28th seed in the men's draw, Querrey is the second-lowest ranked male player remaining, after France's Lucas Pouille (No. 32). Wednesday, he will look to advance to the semifinals by beating Raonic.

"Anytime you get to make a quarterfinal, it's great. For mine to be at Wimbledon's really exciting, really special," Querrey said of his first Grand Slam quarterfinal. "Something I'll always get to kind of have with me."

Before Wimbledon, Querrey had won only one match in his last six Grand Slam tournaments, which include the U.S. Open, French Open and Australian Open. His previous best finish in any of the major tournaments was a fourth round exit -- which he accomplished twice at the U.S. Open and one at Wimbledon in 2010.

Should he advance to the semifinal, Querrey will face either ninth-seeded Croatian Marin Cilic or seven-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer (seeded third).

"You know, I haven't felt many nerves yet this week. I think I'm kind of over that almost," Querrey said. "Hopefully, I will just kind of play freely and have fun and play big and hopefully get another win.

"I'm going to get ready and try to make a semifinal appearance, keep the run going."