Qualifier Ryan Harrison’s campaign in his career-best Grand Slam result was cut short on Friday, as Marcos Baghdatis scored a career-best result of his own, taking a 6-3, 7-6, 1-6, 6-1 win to advance to the US Open Round of 16 for the first time.
It was a highly competitive match that saw a mix of heavy baseline rallies interrupted with a barrage of deft drop shots. On a few occasions, much to the delight of the crowd, a deep lob forced a tweener that kept the point going. In the end, Harrison displayed solid baseline play and clutch serving, but his consistency failed him in the important moments of the match, to the tune of 49 unforced errors.
The 31-year-old Baghdatis prevailed despite the heavily favored American’s home crowd cheering against him, but as the Cypriot was quick to point out after the match, it was nothing he hasn’t experienced here before.
“I think I’ve never played a tougher match than against Andre Agassi in Arthur Ashe, when 23,000 people are against me, so I know the feeling when crowd is against you,” Baghdatis said with a laugh. “But Ryan is playing unbelievable this week, it was a tough match, and I’m glad to be able to win. I’ve played in the second week of every Grand Slam except for this one, so I’m very, very happy to finally be able to do that now.”
Baghdatis’ quick 4-0 lead to start the match was soon challenged when Harrison began to take huge swings at the ball, allowing him to get within two games at 5-3. But those big cuts were sometimes costly, and errors crept in to frustrate the American (he had 19 in the first set alone), and the Cypriot broke to take the lead.
Harrison appeared to build significant momentum going into the second set, taking as much as a 5-3 lead before being broken at love to relinquish his lead at 5-5. The Cypriot soon took charge of the tiebreak that followed and refused to let up, taking a two-set lead over the crowd favorite.
As he has done since the first round here, Harrison was driven by the support of the pro-American crowd, led by a group of patriotic supporters shouting supportive chants on Court 17. Their support fueled him to power through the 27-minute third set 6-1, but by set four, Baghdatis took a strong start that led him to a 5-1 lead before serving out the match for the win on a netted backhand from Harrison.
WHAT IT MEANS: This is the first time Baghdatis has reached the Round of 16 at the US Open. He will next face either No. 10 seed Gael Monfils or Nicolas Almagro for a spot in the quarterfinals.
The 24-year-old Harrison leaves New York with a spectacular tournament, having finished with his best Grand Slam result and the biggest win of his career, which came over No. 5 seed Milos Raonic in the second round.
THE QUESTION: Can Marcos Baghdatis revive the kind of tennis he produced 10 years ago at the
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