Sam Querrey Pulls Out of 2011 U.S. Open To Recover from Elbow Injury

According to the Ventura County Star, US tennis player Sam Querrey has pulled himself out of the 2011 US Open just one week before the event.

Querrey, 23, had surgery on June 16th to clean out bone fragments in his right elbow that occurred during the Queen's Club Tournament.

"The main reason is because the arm gets fatigued after about an hour of playing. I don't have the strength to be able to play a three-out-of-five set match at a high level yet," Querrey said. "I didn't want to go there and think maybe I can play or maybe I can't. I am still young. I don't want to risk it. I think an extra three or four weeks would be beneficial for me."

Querrey's original goal was to play next week's Winston-Salem Open as a tune up for the U.S. Open. After a few days of hitting practice, Querrey knew he would need another three to four weeks to recover.

Although Querrey would have preferred to be in New York, he is relieved to have the decision behind him so he can focus on the future.

Querrey plans to play two or three Challenger events in September and October before traveling to Europe to finish the season.

"The short-term goal is to finish in the top 100 to make sure I am into the Australian Open," Querrey said. "But I obviously want to do much better than that. I could have just played Challengers the rest of the year, but I would rather play a couple ATP events to get back into that mentality and be in that type of environment."

After reaching a career-high ranking of 17 in January this year, Querrey has since dropped to 79th in the world.

In his six US Open appearances, Querrey's best singles results were fourth-round appearances in  2008 and 2010.

"I am sad I am missing the Open, but I think in the long term it is the right  decision," he said. "I am excited for Monday to get back into my routine of  practice and working out. The last three weeks have been a little uncertain because I didn't now what I was going to do. But now that I have a plan in  place, I am excited to get back out there. I feel like the flip has kind of switched for me."

The U.S. Open begins August 29th in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.