By Mario Sarmento
One night after dispatching Sergiy Stakhovsky in straight sets, Sam Querrey took time out from his second-round preparation at the 2014 Sony Open Tennis Tournament to spin some tunes with DJ Clinton Sparks at FILA Friday Night, which took place on the entertainment stage.
Querrey faces 18th-seeded Nicolas Almagro Saturday afternoon on the Grandstand but on Friday he took over Sparks’ turntable for half an hour from 6:30-7 p.m. and rocked the crowd with party remixes of popular songs, like “Call Me Maybe,” “Gonna Die Young,” and “I Don’t Care.” “I like everything,” he said. “I like rock, I like rap. I’ll try anything.”
Sparks, who has worked with stars ranging from Lady Gaga to Pitbull and hosts an award-winning radio show called, “My Awesome Radio Show,” happily turned over the tables to Querrey, giving him some tips, and even showing him how to play to the crowd. Querrey recently signed a deal with FILA, and he showed off his new look as he took the stage dressed in a white cap and white T-shirt with the FILA logo.
“I’m excited,” he said. “This is my third month (with FILA). It’s awesome to be part of the team. I love the clothes, I love everybody I get to work with. I hope it will be a long relationship we have together.” Querrey was also presented with a pair of limited-edition FILA sneakers, which number a couple of dozen pairs and will only be sold on site at the Sony Open.
The shoes come in white or cream color, and feature an orange stripe above a blue stripe that wrap around the back of the shoe. On the back, the orange stripe reads, “Sony Open,” while the blue part says, “Tennis.” The shoes also have blue shoelaces and blue soles with a yellow dot on the bottom of each shoe to represent a tennis ball. “They’re awesome,” he said. “I really like old school, kind of classic shoes, and that’s what these are.”
Twenty-two-year-old Sejal Shah, who witnessed the event with Sachin Shah, 20, and Kevin Arregores, 21, said of Querrey’s skills, “He’s good. It was good music.” Sachin, who was wearing a pair of black FILA shoes with red shoelaces, added that he planned on visiting the stores to find the Sony Open pair.
As for his match Saturday, Querrey joked, “I prepare by pretending I’m a DJ for 30 minutes. Then I practice a little tomorrow, and then I hit.”
