America’s Ryan Harrison and his progress in the year 2010
Eighteen year old American tennis pro Ryan Harrison has been touted as the next Andy Roddick, and the USA’s only hope for future success in the field of tennis. Harrison, who lives in New Braunfels in Texas, is notable for being the third youngest player
to have won an ATP level match since 1990, when he defeated World Number 130 Pablo Cuevas in the 2008 US Men’s Clay Court Championships.
Harrison, who was ranked World Number 1000 at the time of this event, is the tenth player in the history of the ATP to win match before his 16th birthday. This achievement sets him in an illustrious group, with players such as current World Number
1 Rafael “Rafa” Nadal and Richard Gasquet.
Ryan Harrison began 2010 with a playoff against other Americans to determine who would receive America’s wildcard slot for the first Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open. In these matches, Harrison defeated Alex Kuznetsov and Donald Young in two sets,
before scoring a victory over Jesse Levin in three consecutive sets. Once in the draw for the Aussie Open, he was defeated by Serbian Janko Tipsarevic in straight sets.
At this point in the year, Harrison began to compete in some other tournaments. He first received a wild card into the year’s SAP Open, where he was defeated by the eventual semi-finalist Denis Istomin within the first round. His next big event was the 2010
Regions Morgan Keegan Championships, where he cleared qualification rounds to lose in straight sets to eventual finalist, John Isner.
Harrison’s next event was the 2010 Delray Beach International Tennis Championships, where he lost to eventual champion Ernests Gulbis in the first round. He then received a wildcard for participation in the 2010 BNP Paribas Open. At this event, Harrison
was able to defeat Taylor Dent in the first round before eventual champion Ivan Ljubicic defeated him. Harrison’s next losses were both first round ones, one at the 2010 Sunrise Challenger and the second at the 2010 Sony Ericsson Open. He then played several
tournaments with no real results.
On May 19, Harrison who was then World Number 263 tried to qualify for the 2010 French Open. He had previously lost the US Wildcard Playoff final to Ryan Sweeting. He also lost the final of the qualifying round, this time to Stefano Galvani. Harrison’s next
Majors attempt was Wimbledon Qualifying, where he lost to Lithuanian player Ricardas Berankis in the first round.
Since he was unable to gain points on one of his preferred surfaces, Harrison then decided to participate in the 2010 Hall of Fame Tennis Championships. He had a reasonably successful run here, defeating both Karol Beck and Denis Kudla in straight sets,
before losing to Richard Bloomfield. His ATP Rankings then rose to a career-high of Number 220.
Harrison’s best run at a Grand Slam was this year, when he defeated fifteenth seed Ivan Ljubicic in the first round. He lost the second round to Sergey Stakhovsky in five nerve-racking sets. His next tournaments included a successful fall with the Challenger
tour, the Tiburon final, the Calabasas quarterfinals and Charlottesville and Bratislavia’s second rounds.
While still young and inexperienced, Ryan Harrison definitely possesses the potential to make a mark in the tennis world, and he is expected to give America something to cheer for in his further tournaments.
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