Ryan Harrison has reached his second ATP final of the year after fighting his way past Kyle Edmund 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-4, at the BB&T Open in Atlanta.
The fourth seed was made to dig deep throughout the encounter. Losing his break advantage during the opening set, Harrison was edged out in the tiebreaker. He was then forced to save a breakpoint at the start of the second set before managing to generate momentum to see off his British rival.
“I felt that towards the end of the first set he was starting to get onto my serve the faster I hit it. So I tried to get my (service) percentage up, hit it a little heavier and used the width of the court as well. That got me in a really good rhythm on my serve and I felt it freed me up on the return as well.” Harrison said about his change of tactics.
One telling factor of the match was Edmund’s unforced error count. The British player managed to hit ten more winners than Harrison (31-21), but also produced a costly tally of 37 unforced errors. Two-times more than his opponent.
It’s an all-🇺🇸 @BBTatlantaopen final after @ryanharrison92 d. Edmund to face @JohnIsner on Sunday. https://t.co/b8vTvWdrvL #USOpenSeries pic.twitter.com/8WeEERx7Cm
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) 30 July 2017
Isner awaits in final
Winning 84% of his first service points and converting three out of seven break point opportunities, Harrison will next face John Isner in the final. It will be the first all-American final at the tournament since 2011. Top seed Isner fired a total of 15 aces and saved all four break points he faced to defeat Gilles Muller 6-4, 6-2.
“It was a very good match. Absolutely nothing to complain about today. On and off the court in pretty quick fashion and I certainly will be ready to go tomorrow,” Isner told atpworldtour.com about his semifinal performance. “I feel great physically, maybe the best I have felt in quite sometime. More importantly than that I am pretty confident as well.”
Harrison will enter the final at the underdog. Not only is he ranked lower, Isner is also a three-time champion and has featured in the Atlanta final five times since 2011. A record that no other player has matched so far in the tournament’s history. Nevertheless, Harrison is refusing to be intimidated by his opponent’s record.
“John is very comfortable playing here. I am, too,” Harrison said. “He serves great. I know that I serve really well also. I think that our games are going to be ones that are heavily dictated by our control of play with our service games. It’s going to be really important for me to not get discouraged whenever he’s hammering aces left and right. … It’s going to happen.”
The friendship between the two players will be put on ice during Sunday’s final. Harrison described Isner as one of his ‘best friends’ that he talks to regularly throughout the year. Regardless of who will win the title, it is expected that both men will be celebrating together after the final.
“The good news is that after those two-and-a-half hours, we’re probably going to hang out and enjoy that we both made the finals. Hopefully I’ll be the one with the big trophy, but at the end of the day, I’m still going to be using this momentum as a good thing.” Said Harrison.
Overall Isner leads their head-to-head 5-2, but Harrison won their most recent clash at the 2016 Rogers Cup.
