Yen-Hsun Lu vs Ryan Harrison – Quarterfinal Preview: Farmers Classic 2011
Of the four quarterfinals at the Farmers Classic in Los Angeles, the only match lacking a seeded player is the one between Taiwan’s Yen-Hsun Lu and America’s Ryan Harrison. The match is scheduled to be played at the Straus Stadium
on campus at the University College Los Angeles on Friday and the tournament has won praise as a premier US Open Series tournament in the run up to the big event at Flushing Meadows.
Lu had opened the tournament in flamboyant style by winning both his opening matches skilfully. He first dismissed the American wild card Robby Ginepri 6-4, 7-5 to proceed to the second round where he scored an upset win against
third seed Marcos Baghdatis 6-3, 6-4, leaving the experienced player dumbfounded. Lu opponent, special exempt Harrison had made headway into the tournament by ousting Richard Berankis in a three set opener and defeating compatriot Michael Russell in the second
round to secure his berth in the quarter finals.
The 19 year old Harrison, currently ranked at No. 94 on the singles rankings was the first American teenager since Andy Roddick to beat a top 20 player at a Grand Slam event. He defeated No. 11 Corretja at the 2001 US Open. He
comes in with a win-loss standing of 7-11, impressive for his age and has been in his best form recently. He ended the recently concluded Atlanta tournament on a high note by reaching the semi finals, before being defeated by top American Mardy Fish. Last
year at the Farmers Classic, Harrison had failed to make it past the second round of the Qualifiers and despite his improved form the player is still looking for that elusive first ATP career title.
Harrison’s opponent, the 76th ranked Taiwanese Yen-Hsun Lu aspires to become the first Chinese player to reach top 20. However achieving this goal might be too late for Lu since at 27 years of age he is considered to
be past his prime athletic years. Lu’s current season’s win-loss mark stands at 9-16, unimpressive for a man with his experience. Despite playing in a number of ATP tour tournaments this year, the Taiwanese had yet to move past the second round of a majority,
the only exception to the rule being at Atlanta earlier and at the Farmers Classic. Lu bowed out of the Atlanta tournament to John Isner in his top-eight match. This player too hasn’t had any luck in winning even a single career title to date.
This is the players’ first match against each other.
Both the players have improved dramatically in the last few weeks and this match will be a close call. However if Lu is able to replicate his second round performance against the third seed Baghdatis again, he might close the deal
in two straight sets.
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