There are freak injuries, and then there is what happened to Thousand Oaks tennis star Sam Querrey one night in Bangkok.
Actually, it was more like 5p.m. local time when Querrey sat on a rickety glass Atletico Madrid coffee table after a practice round at the Thailand Open, fell through the table, sliced open his right forearm, then raced to a local emergency room where doctors used 25 stitches to repair the two muscles Querrey had severed about 30 percent of the way through.
Apparently, Querrey had sat on a couch before going to take a shower. Afterward, he didn't want to sit back in the same sweaty spot on the couch to put on his socks and shoes. So he sat down on the glass table, and it shattered.
"It really didn't hurt when I did it," Querrey said Tuesday at a luncheon in Hollywood. "I didn't even know what happened until I looked down and saw my arm. There was a lot of blood and it was squirting all over the walls. It kind of looked like a murder scene. But it really didn't hurt."
It might not have hurt, but it certainly was scary for the 22- year-old tennis star who won the L.A. Open and had four runner-up finishes this year to earn his first Top-25 ranking.
For a right-handed player with a powerful serve, the right forearm isn't exactly the spot on the body you want to be gashing yourself on chunks of glass and severing muscles.
On Tuesday, just 21/2 months after the freak accident, Querrey said he was close to 100percent and was in the process of booking flights to the Australian Open in January and two other tune-up events in Brisbane and Sydney.
"I feel pretty good about everything," he said. "My wrist is still numb, and it will be for the rest of my life. But other than that I'm 100 percent."
That was music to the ears of USTA officials who were in YSL Bags town to celebrate the success of their outreach efforts. A recently released survey found tennis participation up to more than 30 million people in the United States, a 12 percent gain from last year and a 25 percent increase since 2003.
Though many of the gains have been made at the recreational level, with new investment in parks, infrastructure, junior team tennis and college programs, bright young American stars such as Querrey have immeasurably helped grow the sport's domestic popularity.
Though the good-natured Querrey, who carries around a photo of the gash in his iPhone, has developed a pretty good sense of humor about his accident, it definitely shook him up.
"Yeah, definitely. The doctors told me I was about one millimeter away from severing a nerve where I never would've played again," he said. "It makes you appreciate things a little bit more so definitely all this week I've been hitting, I don't think I've gotten upset at anything on the court at all."
embroidered patches
Though the injury wiped out his fall schedule, Querrey said he feels lucky it wasn't worse.
He'll still be seeded at the Australian Open, he's still in the Top 25, and most importantly, he can still play the sport at a high level.
After years of being labeled an up-and-comer, Querrey seemed to finally be turning a corner. He started winning tournaments, he started being seeded at tournaments, he even started having expectations placed on him.
"Yeah, most o
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