Sam Querrey says fears his famous victory over Novak Djokovic would be labelled a fluke helped motivate him to beat Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon and become the first American man to reach a grand slam quarter-final for five years.
The 28-year-old suffered no hangover from his shock weekend triumph over the world No.1 as he beat Frenchman Mahut 6-4 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 in the fourth round on Monday to reach the first grand slam quarter-final of his career.
"If I didn't win, there would have been a lot of: Wow, it was kind of a fluky match against Novak because you didn't back it up," he said.
"I definitely knew if I lost, it would have been: Hey, you beat Novak, but obviously that was just like one special moment."
The 28th seed was rarely troubled as he simply overpowered world No.51 Mahut with his huge serve, backed up by booming groundstrokes.
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He lost just two points on his first serve in the entire match against the Frenchman, who had won their two previous meetings.
On US Independence Day, he became the first American man to reach the quarter-final at Wimbledon since Mardy Fish in 2011.
He is also the first American man to make the quarter-final of any slam since John Isner and Andy Roddick at the US Open of the same year.
Querrey, who will play either David Goffin or Milos Raonic in the last eight, said he had savoured the triumphs and plaudits that had come his way at Wimbledon this year.
"I'm not going to lie. After the Novak match, I watched every highlight I could over and over. Enjoyed the hell out of that moment," he said.
"I'm just going to keep kind of enjoying myself - it feels great, it's exciting - but I'm going to get ready and try to make a semi-final appearance."
