The eighth time was the charm for Ryan Harrison on Saturday at the Memphis Open. After going winless in his seven previous ATP World Tour singles semi-finals, he converted on his fifth match point to reach his first final with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over fellow American Donald Young.
“It’s surreal right now. I’ve hit some obstacles in my career where I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do this,” said Harrison in his on-court interview. “Donald played unbelievable on all of those match points and I didn’t do anything wrong, so I told myself not to panic, smile it off and keep doing what I can. I’m just glad I could get the win.”
Harrison has yet to drop a set en route to the championship match and has been stellar indoors as of late, having prevailed earlier this month at the $100,000 ATP Challenger Tour event in Dallas. Currently No. 62 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, he is projected to jump inside the Top 50 on Monday. marking his first appearance in that upper echelon since July 2012. Harrison also improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head record against Young to 2-1.
A lone break of serve at 2-2 was all Harrison needed to capture the opening set. He appeared energised by holding the advantage and quickly secured two breaks to lead 4-1 in the second set. Young fought valiantly, saving a match point on Harrison’s serve down 2-5 and three more on his own serve in the next game. But Harrison remained calm and fired an ace on his fifth match point to advance in one hour and 30 minutes.
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Awaiting him in the championship match is Nikoloz Basilashvili, who raced through the latter stages of his semi-final to defeat Mikhail Kukushkin 7-6(5), 6-1 and reach his second ATP World Tour final.
“The more matches you play, the more you get used to playing in these important moments,” said Basilashvili. “I have really good energy at the moment and am enjoying being on the court, so I hope to keep this level going.”
The Georgian player also hasn’t lost a set this week and has been enjoying a hot streak on indoor hard courts, recording a semi-final finish last week in Sofia (l. Dimitrov). He’s now one win from his first ATP World Tour title after finishing runner-up in his maiden final this past July in Kitzbuehel (l. Lorenzi). Currently at a career-high No. 67 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, a win on Sunday would put Basilashvili inside the Top 50.
Basilashvili and Kukushkin battled through a 78-minute opening set, with several games featuring multiple deuces. Little separated the two players through the tie-break, but some impressive scrambling from Basilashvili at 5/5 drew two errors from Kukushkin and gave the Georgian the early advantage. Losing the set appeared to flatten Kukushkin’s spirit, while Basilashvili raised his level further and began pinning his opponent well behind the baseline. The Georgian broke his opponent twice in the second set en route to prevailing in one hour and 46 minutes.
DOUBLES
Harrison is also in the doubles final with fellow American Steve Johnson after defeating second seeds Oliver Marach/Fabrice Martin 7-6(5), 6-2. They'll play American Brian Baker and Croatian Nikola Mektic, who reached their first final of the year by moving past Australians Matthew Ebden/Bernard Tomic 7-6(1), 6-2.