A Wimbledon finalist just last month, and seeded No. 5 at the U.S. Open, Raonic double-faulted 15 times and was stunned in the second round at Flushing Meadows 6-7 (4), 7-5, 7-5, 6-1 on Wednesday by Ryan Harrison, a qualifier from the United States ranked only 120th. “Then the opportunities to break him are kind of few and far between when you get ’em”, said Harrison.
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Day, the youngest player in the draw, was playing in her first Grand Slam tournament.
Novak Djokovic breezed into the third round at the US Open. And he had to qualify his way into the event.
In the second set momentum began to shift to Harrison’s side as his movement at the baseline and excellent groundstrokes forced Raonic from side to side, and a late break allowed the American to win the hour long second set.
Harrison has now reached the third round of a Slam for the first time after recording just a second win over a top 10 opponent in 27 meetings.
“It’s mental maturity, a little bit of stabilization with everything around me that is allowing me to play with a sense of calm and also with excitement, ” said Harrison, who turned pro almost a decade ago and reached a top ranking of 43rd in 2012. “My personality is a very fiery one”.
“I stopped looking at the world rankings when I dropped out of the top 10”, said Wozniacki when asked how she kept her spirits up during her recent slump.
Elsewhere, fifth seed Marin Cilic won through to the third round along with French pair Gael Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
He saw off a depleted Milos Raonic for the first major upset at this year’s US Open.
Harrison continued to apply pressure and went ahead 5-2 in the second set only to watch Raonic fight back to level at 5-5. There was a lengthy visit from the trainer to work on Raonic’s wrist and later massage his quad muscle.
“I wasn’t moving that well”, Raonic said. I started playing qualifying in D.C. “My body wouldn’t let me”.
“I’m excited to keep moving forward”, Harrison said during an on-court interview at the tournament’s new Grandstand stadium, telling the partisan crowd: “Anything’s possible when I have your support”. Raonic’s total was 62, including a whopping 21 in the third set alone. Resilient after double-faulting on set point to give Raonic the first set, Harrison stayed the course yesterday for a 6-7 (4), 7-5, 7-5, 6-1 victory.
Vancouver’s Vasek Pospisil was eliminated from the U.S. Open on Wednesday after a 7-6 (3), 6-4, 6-4 loss to 23rd-seed Kevin Anderson of South Africa.
“He played well, he did a lot of things well”, the Canadian said. No way to try to win a tennis match.
He said he missed four days of practice while undergoing tests and treatment and it was bothering him during his first-round U.S. Open match Monday, when he was pushed to five sets by 117th-ranked qualifier Saketh Myneni.
The 26-year-old Sevastova, who reached the round of 16 at the 2011 Australian Open, retired in May 2013 because of a series of injuries, mostly to her back.
After her first-round victory took almost 2 1/2 hours and ended close to 2 a.m., the eighth-seeded American Madison Keys routed 16-year-old Kayla Day 6-1, 6-1 in 48 minutes.
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“Good thing for Ryan”.
