Ryan Harrison outmuscles Robby Ginepri in the second round – SAP Open 2012
In an all-American clash, Ryan Harrison battled past the wild card entrant, Robby Ginepri, in a three set nail-biter at the SAP Open 2012 on Thursday. Harrison manipulated a 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(0) victory against his fellow citizen to reach the quarter-finals
at this hard court tournament taking place in San Jose, California, United States.
World number 94, Harrison, showed solid tennis to outlast the wild card in their first meeting at this ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 series event. He not only took lead in the FedEx ATP Head2Head series by 1-0 against Ginepri but
also secured a spot in the final eight at this $600,000 event.
The 19-year-old stormed into the HP Pavilion and stroke out the opening three games in a row before Ginepri could hold on. Apart from losing his edge in the seventh game, he maintained his intensity and bagged the last two games, eventually sealing the opener
by winning six games to three.
Currently number 235 in the South African Airways ATP World Tour Rankings, Ginepri roared back with a fitting reply in the second set. He earned the coveted break in the fourth game and consequently went 4-1 up. The lower ranked cashed in his second break
chance in the last game and pulled out the equaliser with a 6-2 win.
The match could go in any direction at this point and both players held their composure in it. Harrison committed more double faults but blocked both breakpoints he faced. The youngster found a break opportunity but squandered it, subsequently dragging the
set to a tie-breaker. He outplayed Ginepri in it and clinched the decider with a 7-6(0) score line.
Next challenge for the teenager is the Bulgarian qualifier, Dimitar Kutrovsky, who dumped the local lucky loser, Blake Strode, in straight sets to set-up this meeting.
Earlier that day, fifth seeded Julien Benneteau got the spotlight after tumbling over the Luxembourgian challenger, Gilles Muller, in straight sets in one hour and 17-minutes. The French not only avenged his defeat at Queen’s Club, London in 2005 but also
advanced into the last eight at this tournament.
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