SAVANNAH, May 3, 2018
On Wednesday evening, Christian Harrison battled his way past Andrea Arnaboldi 7-6(4), 6-3, to book himself a spot in the quarterfinals of the St. Joseph’s/Candler (SJ/C) Savannah Challenger.
In the first set Harrison and Arnaboldi kept the points long with deep rallies from the baseline. Harrison took the opening set 7-6(4), and continued that momentum into the second set. Arnaboldi made a late push and at 5-3 Harrison faced three break points, but saved them all and took the match 7-6(4), 6-3 after one hour and 52 minutes.
“It’s all about staying tough and keeping you head in the game,” said Harrison. “I feel like I did a good job of that today by playing every point and trying to tell myself positive things in my head.”
With the win Harrison has now reached his first career ATP Challenger Tour singles quarterfinal on clay. This will also be his second singles quarterfinal of the year on the Challenger Tour, and he is ready to take the win one step further.
“I feel like this helps my confidence a lot and really gets me on track with where I want to be going,” said Harrison.
The 23-year old US-American will now take on former world No. 21 Thomaz Bellucci on Friday, as he looks to continue his run in Savannah. Earlier in the day, Bellucci defeated young-gun Jay Clarke in a tough three-set match, but Harrison is ready for the challenge.
“It’s going to be all about staying tough,” said Harrison. “He’s a proven player, so I am going to take a lot of confidence away from these first two matches and try to do everything that I did today.”
Also advancing to the quarterfinals were No.7 seed Hugo Dellien, who defeated Marc Polmans 7-6, 6-4, and Guilherme Clezar, who rallied past Enrique López Pérez 0-6, 7-6, 6-4. The remainder of second round matches kick off on Thursday morning at 10:00 a.m. local time. Center court will be packed with singles action all day, with a battle of the qualifiers kicking off the day (Sell vs Cuevas).
