!Picby Pete Bodo
First, it was a fightback from 1-3 down in the third set against Olivier Rochus—a feat made considerably easier by Ryan Harrison's outstanding day at the service notch, where he smacked 27 aces. Then it was a comeback from two match points down against fellow American Robby Ginepri. Harrison barreled downhill all the way to the end of that two-hour and eight-minute match (the scores were 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 [0]), winning the final 10 points.
Clearly, the boy is still stoked by the role he played in team USA's upset of Switzerland last weekend in the first-round of Davis Cup. He's been on fire so far at San Jose's SAP Open.
Granted, Harrison's win in Fribourg was a dead rubber (against No. 249 Michael Lammer, a stand-in for Roger Federer), but it was Harrison's first Davis Cup match and just his second tie. It would be foolish to discount the emotional fuel Davis Cup success can pump into the tank of a youngster who values the competition.
So the natural question pops up: Is this breakthrough time for ATP No. 94 Harrison, the 19-year old native of Shreveport, La., who two months ago became a resident and neighbor of his mentor Andy Roddick in Austin, Tx.?
Jim Courier, Harrison's Davis Cup captain, would love to see it happen. But he's not sure the time is right—not just yet.
"Sure it could happen. But Ryan is still in the process of organizing his game," Courier told me in a phone conversation earlier today. "It's all still very raw, but that's a good thing. He did a lot of hard work in the off-season, and that set him up for the next few stages. It's not going to take him that long to put it together, but he's still in transformation."
Harrison, a lad who knows what he wants and isn't afraid to say it, is chomping at the bit. But then, he's been doing that for a few years now. If anything, his obvious, impetuous desire may have hurt him on a few occasions in the past, when he lost close matches on big stages (like his defeat at the 2010 U.S. Open at the hands of Sergiy Stakhovsky, when Harrison wasted three match points).
If there's such a thing as wanting something too much, Harrison has sometimes been guilty. But it's a great problem to have, which is why both former Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe and Courier have been patient with and appreciative of his attitude as a junior member of the squad. Harrison is the guy who's always ready to jump up off the bench and plead, "Hey coach, put me in. . .I can do it!"
That passion is also one reason why Harrison's match tonight with qualifier Dimitar Kutrovsky, the Bulgarian Longhorn, will be a good barometer for how well Harrison manages his emotions and game. Kutrovsky is 24. He played collegiate tennis for the University of Texas and, oddly enough, has practiced with Harrison while the American youngster was training in Austin with Roddick. Harrison is certain to feel some pressure in this one.
But whatever happens today, Harrison's game is approaching critical mass. Some people once were skeptical of what they perceived as Harrison's lack of a weapon, but that criticism has proven premature and, now, irrelevant. "I'd put "people" in quotes on that one," Courier said. "Ryan's first serve is a bomb, and his second serve is excellent—it really jumps up there. His forehand is a big shot, and he defends well—if anything, he defends a little too much because he has that natural athletic ability."
Harrison hits two backhands, a two-handed drive and a one-handed slice. Courier, as well as Harrison's personal coach, Grant Doyle, would like to see Harrison create a little more space for his forehand by exploiting better angles with his two-hander. Harrison is also working on his service return—less so on technique than on situational decision-making.
One reason Courier and others feel that Harrison may be a year or two from his best tennis is his seemingly innate understanding of the many dimensions of the game. "Right now," Courier says, "Ryan has the body, the lungs, the speed to compete at the highest level. Now it's about making choices, which can be a little tricky for a guy like him because he really sees the court as a player, he's not just a hitter."
Still, there's enough of the hitter in Harrison to enable him to spit out aces by the dozen, and that's not a talent to take lightly.