Since missing out on the first two months of the year, American rising star Jack Sock has been on a run. He captured his first ATP title at the US Men’s Clay Court Championships, knocking out Kevin Anderson and Sam Querrey along the way. At the French Open, he upset Grigor Dimitrov in the first round, and made his first Grand Slam round of 16. Last night, he notched another big win over this year’s Wimbledon semifinalist, Richard Gasquet, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4, to advance to the quarterfinals in Washington.

The young American started the match off slow, unable to read Gasquet’s serve.

“He’s got a pretty sneaky serve because his toss is similar most of the time and it stays low and has a lot of cut on it, so it took me a while to get a rhythm there.”

In the first set, Gasquet controlled many of the baseline rallies, using his elegant one-handed backhand to push the American back. Although his serve is not one of his biggest strengths, he was able to hold comfortably. Sock quickly fell down a break in the second set, but was able to find solutions to fight back. He says his improved backhand helped him in the longer rallies.

“Sometimes when he’s up he can make a few more loose errors than when it’s tight. So I thought if I stayed in and kept close and kept fighting then I’d have a chance. I think my most improved shot, my backhand, really helped me out there down those two break points and I was able to turn it around.”

Sock was able to break back and took the second set in a tiebreaker. The stadium crowd was as passionate as ever, urging on the rising American star. He was able to break Gasquet at 3-3, with an emphatic backhand down the line. He did not look back, and was able to capture the final set at 6-4.

Throughout the match, many poor line calls were made by the linesmen. Countless calls were overturned by challenges by both players, embarrassing the line umpires. Due to the line umpire position being volunteers, many of them are retired seniors with poor vision. Sock was asked in his press conference whether he thought the linesmen were too elderly.

“Well, there are a lot of late nights we’ve been here; they’ve been working hours on end. It’s tough, you have guys getting serves at 140 miles per hour and balls that are less than an inch out and it’s tough to see sometimes so you know you’ve got to give the benefit of the doubt.”

Sock faces Stevie Johnson next, in an all American quarterfinal. Johnson has been in peak form this tournament, taking out both Bernard Tomic and Grigor Dimitrov.

"It should be a good battle," said Sock.