Ryan Harrison overcomes Victor Hanescu in the opening round – Winston-Salem Open 2011
World number 67 Ryan Harrison of USA survived the first set drubbing and bounced back to beat world number 72 Victor Hanescu of Romania in three sets 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the first round at the Winston-Salem Open in North Carolina,
USA on Monday. The American took an hour and 32 minutes to rally past his opponent.
Hanescu came roaring into the match, breaking the American in the second game and claiming his next service game to build a 3-0 lead. The Romanian broke Harrison again in the sixth game and capitalised on it to clinch the set 6-1.
The six feet and six inches tall gave a brilliant first serve performance as he hit 79 percent of the first serves, grabbing an amazing fourteen of the fifteen first service points and two of the four second service points in the
opening set. On the other hand, Harrison gave a poor second serve performance, committing five double faults and winning just two of the nine second service points. The American lost fourteen of the fifteen first return points and failed to save both break
points he faced in the first set.
Harrison came back in the second set as he broke the Romanian in the fourth game and won his next service game, blazing forward to a 4-1 lead. The American did not drop his serve throughout the set and served it out at 5-3.
The right-handed had a low first serve percentage as he delivered a meagre 38 percent of the first serves but the American amazingly converted all the eleven of them into points and hit four aces on them. While, Hanescu won an
incredible ten of the eleven points on the first serve. The Romanian gave a poor second serve performance as he hit a couple of double faults and converted just two of the second serves into points in the second set.
Harrison carried the winning momentum into the third set and broke the Romanian immediately, holding his serve in the next game to grab a 2-0 lead. The American was looking a completely different player as he broke Hanescu again
in the fifth game and consolidated on it, stretching his lead to 5-1. The Romanian was not in a mood to go down without a fight as he won next three games to take the score to 4-5. However, he was unable to equalise the score, losing the set 4-6.
Harrison is drawn to face sixth seed Kevin Anderson of South Africa in the second round.
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