Half a world away from the ATP Masters 1000 event in Shanghai, China, one of the hottest players in the game right now toils away on his home turf, building a full steam of momentum that could positively affect his 2015 campaign.

American Sam Querrey is playing at this week’s event in Tiburon, California, looking to make it a clean sweep of the fall California Challenger tournaments after winning the prior two weeks in Sacramento and Napa. The veteran is displaying some of the form that took him to a career-high ranking of No. 17 back in 2011.

That form has been missing for a couple of years as Querrey has struggled with an array of injuries, as well as personal issues that date from the end of 2013. Based on this current run, that all seems to be firmly resolved, since he’s been making everything look somewhat easy.

Granted, it probably should look easy. Querrey has been facing players who haven’t scaled nearly the heights he has in his career. In fact, among the field in Tiburon, nobody else has won a singles title on the main ATP World Tour—a feat that Querrey has accomplished seven times, most recently in 2012. So why play Challengers, especially when his ranking is high enough to have gotten him into the past few tournaments during the Asian swing?

It’s a page straight from the Andre Agassi book of comebacks:  play some Challengers, rebuild confidence, and look forward to taking on the big names on the ATP World Tour again. Agassi worked it to perfection at the end of 1997 after being in a slump throughout that year. It carried over to 1998, when his ranking went from triple digits to back within the top 10.

There’s something to be said for winning a lot of matches in a row at the Challenger level and the benefits that come with it. For one, Querrey is getting to work on his timing without the possibility of facing a top-10 player in the first or second round. He’s also getting to test himself mentally, since everyone in the draw is aiming to notch a victory against a top-20-caliber player. Querrey is forced to be on guard every match, which will help him when he does come up against the likes of Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in the future.

Coming through at the end of the week with first-place hardware is the best testament to the work Querrey has put in to move back up the rankings. It’s an encouraging sign that there’s plenty of drive left in the tank for the 27-year-old as he enters the later stages of his career.