Sam Querrey, whose career began in Santa Rosa, pulls off Wimbledon shocker against Andy Murray

LONDON - The tennis career of Sam Querrey, who pulled off the biggest win of the Wimbledon tournament Wednesday, was first learned to play tennis at a club in Santa Rosa.

Querrey's shocker was a 3-6, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-1 victory against men's defending champion and No. 1 seed Andy Murray that vaulted Querrey, the 24th seed, to his first Grand Slam semifinal. in the Wimbledon quarterfinals Wednesday.

The No. 1-seeded Murray came into the tournament dealing with a sore left hip and it clearly impeded him at Centre Court. He grimaced as he stumbled or landed awkwardly while attempting shots.

Querrey took full advantage to reach the first Grand Slam semifinal of his career and the first for any American man anywhere since Andy Roddick was the runner-up at Wimbledon in 2009.

Querrey will face 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic of Croatia in one semifinal Friday. Cilic defeated Gilles Muller 3-6, 7-6 (6), 7-5, 5-7, 6-1 with the help of 33 aces. On the other half of the draw, Roger Federer will face Tomas Berdych.

"I am still in a little bit of shock myself," Querrey said.

Querrey, who was born in San Francisco, moved to Santa Rosa with his family when he was 2 and began playing tennis at age 6 at Santa Rosa's La Cantera Tennis Club. The family moved to Southern California when Querrey was 8. He played tennis at Thousand Oaks High School before turning down a scholarship to USC to become a professional, mostly on advice from his father who always regretted going to the University of Arizona instead of pursuing a professional baseball career.

Beating a No. 1 seed at Wimbledon is not new for Querrey, if reaching the semifinal round of a Grand Slam tournament is. In 2016 he upset top seed and No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic in a third-round match as he reached the quarterfinal round for the first time. That ended Djokovic's streak of 30 consecutive match wins in Grand Slam events.

Murray is normally a terrific returner, but Querrey hit 27 aces in Wednesday's match, including on six of the last nine points he served to finish with a flourish. Querrey was impeccable for portions of the match, finishing with 70 winners and only 30 unforced errors.

"He was dictating all of the points," Murray said.

From 1-all in the fourth, Querrey grabbed eight games in a row to take that set and lead 3-0 in the last.

"I didn't start my best, but I just kept with it. Kept swinging away and then really found a groove in the fourth and fifth set," Querrey said. "And everything kind of seemed to be falling my way then."

Querrey is the lowest-ranked player to ever beat two-time Wimbledon champion Murray in his 12 appearances at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament.

For Murray, this was the fourth five-set match he's lost in a row. Querrey is headed in the opposite direction: Merely 4-10 in fifth sets for his career until last week, he has won each of his past three matches by going the distance: against 12th-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the third round, Kevin Anderson in the fourth, and now Murray.

Querrey always has had an intimidating serve, but he's never managed to put together his overall game for enough matches to play on the final weekend at a major.

Indeed, until last year's win against Djokovic, he might have been best known for some of his unusual off-court episodes. In Thailand for a 2009 tournament, he cut two muscles in his right arm when he sat on a glass table that shattered. Two years ago, he appeared on the reality TV show "The Millionaire Matchmaker." There's a popular video clip on social media of Querrey sunglasses and hat on, shirt unbuttoned dancing with friends wearing horse-head masks.

Now Querrey's on-court accomplishment Wednesday will make headlines. Win two more matches, and he'll be the Wimbledon champion.