Sam Querrey, the top-ranked American in the tournament, hits a return during Wednesday's first-round victory over Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain.

Journal photo / John Freidah

NEWPORT — Sam Querrey has been pretty busy over the last few days at the Campbell's Hall of Fame Tennis Championships.

Since he'll be playing World Team Tennis for the St. Louis Aces next week, he's been trying to line up tickets to the Major League All-Star Game, which will take place in the same city.

He checked online to see if there are any good concerts going on in any of the cities where he'll be playing tournaments this summer.

Using his tennis racket as a golf club, Querrey spent some time during Tuesday's rain delay playing a version of golf with his intern on the practice courts.

Of course, he did some text messaging, too.

Oh, and since the truck carrying all of his new summer adidas apparel was robbed as it was en route from Germany to London, where he was playing at Wimbledon last week, Querrey figured he'd make some calls about that, too.

As for tennis? Well, Querrey says he was able to practice on the grass courts for about an hour over the last few days and then indoors for a bit, as well.

“That's just how tennis is," he said of the weather delays — and the need to find ways to occupy one's time.

Despite the layoff, Querrey was ready to go when his match finally got underway Wednesday as the top-ranked American in the tournament defeated Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain, 6-3, 6-2.

Playing on one of the side tennis courts after center court was deemed unplayable because it was still soggy in some places, Querrey and Hidalgo found themselves playing in somewhat cozier conditions than usual with spectators able to sit quite close.

"It's cool," said the laid-back 21-year-old from Southern California."That's fun for the fans when they get to be on top of the court like that. From the baseline to the fence it's probably like 12 feet, so it's not every day that you get to be that close."

After what he described as a"pretty boring" first set, Querrey managed to find a good rhythm in the second set and rolled to his 20th match win of the year.

"I didn't know that," said Querrey when told he has the most match wins of anyone in this week's 32-player field."That's good. I'm playing a lot of tournaments, got a lot of match wins, which is always good because the more wins you have, the more confident you are. So, hopefully, it will just keep carrying over, and I can get more wins this summer."

Querrey, who recorded a career-high 28 wins last season and is currently 39th in the ATP Tour rankings, says his main goal this season is to earn a top-32 ranking, if not by the U.S. Open then by the end of the year, so that he will earn a seeded invitation to the Australian Open next January.

"I think I'm working harder now," he said of the factors contributing to his recent success."I'm practicing harder, putting in more time off the court. I'm running pretty much every day. I think I'm really fit and really strong, and that just gives you confidence in the match because you know you're not going to get tired."

Making only his second appearance at this tournament — in 2006 he lost in the second round to Andy Murray, 7-5, 6-2 — Querrey says he likes his chances this week.

"Because of the way the court is playing, it's such a low bounce, it kind of evens the playing field a little bit," said Querrey, who will face Prakash Amritraj of India in the next round."You've kind of seen that in the results over the last few years. I think I read the other day the No. 1 seed's never won here [since Amritraj's father Vijay won in 1976]. But I think I have as good a shot as anyone."

cthorn@projo.com