Kennesaw's Ginepri upsets Querrey at French

By Ken Sugiura

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Robby Ginepri started the year with a re-aggravated pinched nerve, then moved on to a sprained ankle, followed by food poisoning.

Tuesday's developments were far more pleasant. In the first round at the French Open in Paris, the Kennesaw resident upset fellow American Sam Querrey, 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4, 6-2. It's the second ATP tour win for Ginepri this year, who is now 2-7 in 2010.

"It's not usually where I want to be," Ginepri said of his win total, "but I'm feeling healthy, which is the main thing. I can take a lot of confidence from being able to step on the court and be able to go 120 percent."

Ginepri, ranked No. 98 in the world, will play Italy's Potito Starace (No. 60) in the second round, probably on Thursday. It will be the second time in eight trips to Roland Garros that Ginepri has advanced past the first round. In 2008, he reached the fourth round.

"You don't get much time to rest and think about it and bask in it," Ginepri said. "Just looking forward to playing the next match for a change and moving forward in the tournament."

Tuesday, Ginepri dropped the first set then fell behind 3-0 in the second-set tiebreaker before he said he got lucky on "kind of a squash shot," and then took the set.

After breaking Querrey in the first game of the third set, "I think he got a little bit down after that," Ginepri said. "I picked up my game a little bit more, and he kind of went away after that. He's been playing a lot of matches."

Querrey, seeded 18th and ranked No. 22 in the world, was the highest seed to fall on the men's side in the opening round. Querrey and Ginepri actually shared a bus ride to Paris from Dusseldorf, Germany, with Georgia grad John Isner and a USTA official after competing together in a pre-French team tournament. On Friday, when the draw was announced and they made the drive, Ginepri told Querrey he didn't want to know until they arrived, a request Querrey honored.

"I asked [Querrey about his draw], but he kind of changed the subject right away," Ginepri said. "I didn't think anything of it."

Ginepri's neck is not bothering him after two treatments for the pinched nerve that kept him out for several weeks in February, March and April. In April, he sprained an ankle in a lower-level ATP tournament in Tallahassee, which sidelined him again. After arriving in France in early May to play in warm-up tournaments for the French, he got food poisoning.

"The procedure seems to have done the work and done the trick," Ginepri said. "It was about a month and a half ago, so I'll keep my fingers crossed."