Cincy Crisis Center, Day 2

Sam Querrey logged a nice victory yesterday over Paul-Henri Mathieu here at the Cincinnati Masters, and looked good doing it. There were only four of us in the post-match presser, which is the kind of situation that makes the early rounds of tournaments, particularly sub-majors, so appealing for a working journalist. I was especially curious to hear how Querrey felt about his workouts with (relatively) new Adidas strength coach Gil Reyes - formerly Andre Agassi's trainer and much-loved mentor. Of those workouts, he said: "It was great. I'm still somewhat working with him when I'm home. I was excited when Adidas hired him, and I've been over there I think three times. It's great.  He's got a great gym. I think it's really beneficial."

And what kind of results has Querrey realized?

"I definitely got a lot stronger in my upper body.  I don't know if you guys can tell.. . [here he was interrupted by laughter]. . . I'll wear a tight shirt in my next match. . .[more laughter]. . . It might not look like it, but it's there. I mean, just all around. You know, we'll work on strength from the feet all the way up to the shoulders and back. I feel like ever thing is a little bit stronger."

This is good news for those, like me, who like the bigness of Querrey's game. And I'm still convinced that he's one of those players who's going to mature later than others - there's so much lank in his "lanky" and so much pole in his "beanpole". At the same time,if you see Querrey together with his dad, Mike, it's seems pretty obvious that Querrey isn't going to mature into a lumbering giant. He's got the lean gene, which is an incredible and little-remarked attribute for an aspiring pro. Among other things, it suggests that Querrey won't become musclebound, and has a pretty good shot at getting all the benefit of his 6-6 height, while carrying over little of the liability.

One of the big questions Querrey's background and approach has raised is whether he's willing to put in the requisite work, and has the necessary desire, to become a top player. About this, he has seemed either naive, cagy, or preternatually wise. It depends on how you interpret such attitudes. My feeling is that he's as laconic intellectually as he is physically, and blessed with a pretty simple, cool willingness to take life as it comes. On this issue, he said: "Yeah, no, (my attitude) is still pretty much the same.  Earlier in the year I was kind of. . . especially in Memphis. . .I don't know if not enjoying it, but I was playing not to lose rather than to kind of go out there to play to win.

"Literally the next week in Vegas I just went out there and said, I'm gonna take chances.  I'm gonna run around second serves and hit them hard as I can.  I'm going to just try to have fun.  That's the only purpose of playing every match.  I won the tournament, so I'm trying to be more like that. Yeah, I mean, I don't really feel pressure.  I'm just kind of going out there and doing whatever."

Yesterday, I caught a glimpse of Mike and Sam Querrey leaving the Marriott and dodging across four lands of traffic to get the Waffle House, presumably for breakfast. It was amusing - the Waffle House being the outstanding landmark around here, from back in the day when there was absolutely nowhere else to get a meal at off hours short of driving to Cincinnati.

For those of you who don't know, the Waffle House is one of those ancient, lingering artifacts on the American landscape, kind of like the White Castle hamburger joints, or Stewart's drive-in. The specialty of the Waffle House has always been heaps of food at a ridiculously low price. The idea of Querrey  operating on a full load of carb-rich pancakes is a scary one; and let's hope the lean gene is a strong one.

This is your Crisis Center post for today; use it to discuss all the action in Cincy. I'm going to be hanging around at Nikolay Davydenko's practice session(s) and catching the afternoon action. Please keep your comments on-topic until the day's play is done. . .