Ryan Harrison ousts Michael Russell in straight sets in 2nd round – Farmers Classic 2011
The rising American sensation, Ryan Harrison made another strong impact in the 2nd round match as he slammed against his fellow countryman Michael Russell in a 2 setter to victory and made it to the Farmers Classic 2011 quarter-final.
The LA Tennis Centre was filled to the top as fans experienced two of their players going head to head for the 4th time in history. In previous fixtures Ryan Harrison had been the stronger link. Winning 2 out the three
previous fixtures, he made this his 3rd and an important one.
Michael Russell, failing to win the 2nd round, has been the former world No.60. Currently at world no.110, the right hander has been playing for a long time (1998). He has been struggling as his records in the past 10
games have been not too satisfying.
On the contrary, the young magician, Ryan Harrison, is just 19-years-old and already in the top 100. Enjoying his best rankings at the moment, the American is extremely agile and strong with his forehands. The world No.94 best
showed his talent as he defeated Michael Russell in straight sets.
Kicking off with the match Harrison served the opening game of the match and opened up the scorecard 1-0. The old American, Russell, followed with his win as he levelled the scores to 1-1. Winning on respective serves, the Americans
won back-to-back games levelling the score at 2-2 and 3-3. Harrison served for game 7 of the match and took the lead 4-3.
The 19-year-old blistered a breakpoint in game 8 to extend his lead to 5-3. The devastated 33-year-old felt the 5-3 led too much and eventually fell in the final game as well. Ryan won the set 6-3 and led the match 1-0.
Russell, serving for game 1 of the second set, Russell blundered and gave away a breakpoint in the first game. However, he managed to pull a breakpoint back in the next game to level the scores to 1-1. The scores levelled once
again at 2-2 with the 33-year-old to serve next. Failing to keep hold of the 19-year-old’s returners, Russell gave away another breakpoint as Harrison took the advantage of the 33-year-old’s stupidity and extended his lead to 4-2 by game 6 of the second set.
The world No.94 had to win 2 games out of the four that he did, to take away the win and sit in the quarter finals. The match ended with score 6-3 and 6-4 in favour of the young American.
Ryan Harrison now sits in the quarter-final round to play against the winner of the match between, seed No.3, Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus and Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan.
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