Top 20 breakthroughs in professional tennis circuit this year: Part Four – Tennis Special
14. Ryan Harrison (the United States of America)
Another youngster from the United States has been among the most talented upcoming performers this season. After the retirement of the former world number one, Andy Roddick, from the professional circuit, 20-year-old Ryan Harrison
is believed to carry on the legacy of the American tennis in the future. The 54th ranked American youngster has proven his skills and class in the past couple of years but hasn’t entered the winners’ circle as yet.
Harrison took off the 2012 ATP season the rank and a gradual rise in his rankings has positioned him at number 54 at the present. His progress has been slower than anticipated, yet the American tennis fans are still very hopeful
to see him as their true champion in the coming days. The right-hander is still to win his maiden ATP championship title and only has one ATP Challenger Tour trophy in his bag. However, his superior game skills hint that he will pocket a lot more titles in
the coming days.
His major breakthroughs of the current season include the semi-final run at the ATP event in San Jose, where he lost to the Canadian number one, Milos Raonic. Harrison went all the way to the pre-quarter-final round of the Indian
Wells Masters tournament, where he lost to the French contender, Gilles Simon, in a three-setter.
Another quarter-final appearance in Houston was immediately followed by a semi-final run in Eastbourne from the American youngster. Harrison kept labouring hard for his maiden championship title but her voyages didn’t prove fruitful,
as he finished in the quarter-final and semi-final round of a number of tournaments this season. His lack of experience played its part every time and he fell to his opponents in a dismal manner.
Harrison also featured the semi-final in Newport this season, again failing to claim a berth in the final of an ATP event. The American youngster finally had his moment in the doubles category in Atlanta, where he teamed up with
Matthew Ebden to claim the championship title. Harrison’s hard work paid off in his US Open Grand Slam campaign and he made it to the quarter-finals of the doubles category, along with his brother, Christian Harrison.
The American youngster aims at breaking into the Top-50 ATP rankings by the end of the current season, something hard to achieve but certainly not impossible for Harrison.
13. Ekaterina Makarova (Russia)
24-year-old Russian contender, Ekaterina Makarova, had one of the most impactful beginnings to the 2012 WTA season. She lost in the opening round of the Apia International Sydney but beat all the odds to reach the quarter-final
of the season-opening Grand Slam, the Australian Open. She stunned the former world number one, Serena Williams, en route to the quarter-final but lost to her fellow compatriot, Maria Sharapova, in the crunch game.
The crafty left-hander posted decent performances in Miami, Madrid, Birmingham and Seoul events but her title drought still prevails. Makarova seems to have a lost a bit of spark which she exhibited in the initial tournaments of
the 2012 season but she eyes to climb further up in the women’s rankings next year. Being a left-hander, the Russian is one of the trickiest opponents to face and she might break into the Top-10 rankings in the near future.
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