Ryan Harrison says it was important for him to get his first win over a Top 10 player, which the 22-year-old secured by defeating defending champion Grigor Dimitrov in Acapulco.
Harrison was 0-22 against Top 10 players before the victory. Harrison told press the "most important thing is that with this win I get that monkey off my back," saying it was weighing on him.
"It feels good. That statistic was hard, very hard to go against it," he said, but added that most of those matches against top players came when he was a teenager. "But it is also true that I have spent recent years playing challengers and I think the first 18 games of the streak, I did not know how to deal with these type of players, was not ready mentally."
Harrison reached a career-high of No. 43 in 2012, but experienced lingering injuries the previous season and is now ranked No. 169. He is once again working with Grant Doyle as his coach.
The 6'2" Harrison qualified for Acapulco tournament and is now in the quarterfinals against Ivo Karlovic. "I got into qualies as an alternate," he said, but is aiming higher. "I want to be the best tennis player in the world. It’s one of those things where you care about what you’re doing, you love what you’re doing and you want to be the best."