MEMPHIS, February 19, 2017
Ryan Harrison has officially made his first ATP final at the Memphis Open presented by ServiceMaster when he beat fellow US-American Donald Young on Saturday.
The first set started out with both players holding serve till the fourth game when Harrison had a break point. He got the first break of the match to lead 4-2. After holding serve Young got break chances of his own to try and get back into the match but Harrison saved it with a great passing shot winner. The World No. 62 would hold and take the first set 6-4.
Harrison would get two break points in the first game of the second set and would convert to take a break and lead 1-0. The 24-year-old from Austin would hold to go up 2-0 after playing a great game on serve. The set continued on serve till 3-1 when Harrison would get break opportunities to get a double break, which he did to lead 4-1.
Young would get a break back chance but once again Ryan would pull of an amazing down the line winner to save the break point. At 5-2 in the second set Donald would get another chance to get back in the match but Harrison was up to the task and saved two more break points. Young would eventually break to make the score 5-3 while Ryan was serving for it. The Texas native would get three match points on Young serve but Donald would save all three and hold to make it 5-4. Ryan had one more chance to serve for the match and a place in the final. He did it in stunning fashion and took the match 6-4, 6-4.
“It’s exciting to be in the final im having fun out there,” Harrison told and added: “Credit to Donald he kept playing aggressive even in those last kind of breaking moments. I know that with my service games, the way I serve, that I can take the racquet out of guys’ hands sometimes.”
Basilashvili Into Second ATP Final
Harrison will play Nikoloz Basilashvili, who got through Mikhail Kukushkin. The first set was tight with both players holding serve until it reached the tiebreaker, which was also tight. Both players had chances to win the 1st set but eventually Basilashvili would take the breaker 7-5 on Kukushkin serve. The second set was one sided as the Kazakh seemed out of energy and Basiliashvli took advantage of it to clinch the frame 6-1 and advance to this second final on the ATP World Tour.
“I’m very happy and feeling really well on court, I’m going to enjoy it. Playing an American in his country is hard because the crowd will probably be cheering against me,” Basilashvili told and is looking forward to Sunday’s title match. The 24-year-old from Tbilisi finished runner-up to Paolo Lorenzi in Kitzbühel last year.
Harrison is also in a position to become just the fifth man in the tournament’s history to win the singles and doubles in the same year. If he achieves that he will join Vijay Amritraj (1976), John McEnroe (1980), Gene Mayer (1981) and Sam Querrey (1980). Harrison is teaming up with fellow US-American Steve Johnson to take on Brian Baker from the United States and Nikola Mektic of Croatia.
