Harrison moves into Round 2
Making his first career ATP Main Draw appearance (and having qualified no less), 15-year old American Ryan Harrison certainly is making the best out of it so far. Harrison defeated the 95th ranked player in the world, Pablo Cuevas, 6-4, 6-3 in the first round of the US Men’s Clay Court Championships in Houston. Harrison won the match in just under one hour, and converted on four of six break opportunities. He also had six aces, and won 76% of the points on his first serve. In doing so, Harrison became the youngest player since 1990 to win an ATP match. He also became the 10th player in the Open Era to win an ATP match before their 16th birthday, and the third this decade (Gasquet and Nadal are the others). Harrison will now face either James Blake or Kei Nishikori in the second round.
What makes the win even more exciting for American tennis is that Cuevas is a very solid clay-court player, having reached the semis at Vina del Mar earlier this year. Combine that with the fact that clay is Harrison’s least favorite surface to play on (we hear), and this makes for a great victory!
I’ve been hearing about the two brothers for quite some time now, great to see a breakthrough here. (And as you’ve said, more impressive is the fact that he actually qualified, i.e. he earned his place in round 1 and made the most of it.)
Not to mention the fact that he won the match on clay. I don’t think that should get lost in all this. His game is better suited for a hardcourt, and he knows it too. Big, big win.
I think the next wave of American tennis will be here very soon with Donald Young(1
finaly putting it together, Ryan Harrison(15) showing that he is the real deal,Jamere Jenkins(17) becoming more and more of a force to be dealt with, and another teen in Evan King(16) starting to put together a nice ITF resume…in a few years I would not be suprised if all of these names,and a couple more, are main stays in the top 100…great job Ryan.
Greg R.
Chicago IL.
I couldn’t agree more, but we still need to keep working because we never want to stop having a great crop of talent.