Ryan Harrison has yet to get his year on track and the fourth and final major of the year is almost upon us. His inconsistency and lack of mental strength are leading most to look elsewhere for the future of American men’s tennis.
Harrison’s struggles started in 2014 when his ranking fell to #190 in the World. His career best ranking is #43, which was achieved in July of 2013. He has gotten his ranking back up in to the top 130 but has struggled to break the top 100. Harrison has not made it past the second round in a Grand Slam and has a below .500 singles career record.
It seems like Harrison burns out when he has to play qualifications and yet he can’t string together enough wins so he doesn’t have to play qualifying. It could be a fitness thing or a mental fatigue problem; Harrison looked decent in qualifies for the Citi Open but then flamed out in the first round of the main draw against James Duckworth. Duckworth is the same age as Harrison and ranked #95 in the world. Harrison, at worst, should have been able to make more of a match of it.
Harrison has had one good ATP tour level tournament and that was in February in Acapulco. He made it through qualification as an alternate and then continued his run all the way to the semifinals before losing to David Ferrer. He had quality wins over Ivo Karlovic and Grigor Dimitrov there. Outside of that tournament he only has two wins on the tour level this year.
Harrison also won the Happy Valley Challenger to start the year and reached the semifinals and quarterfinals of two other Challengers. However, in the two challengers Harrison did not win, he did lose his final matches badly in straight set.
If Harrison is struggling with a confidence problem, which is not uncommon in professional tennis, it might be smart for him to do what Sam Querrey did at the end of last year and play more Challengers. He already has had some success at that level and is not having any real luck on the ATP Tour level.
Harrison has not been shy about his lack of mental toughness. He has even openly admitted to working with a sports psychologist. And while it seems he is slightly mellower on the court he does still seem to lose focus and lack intensity.
In 2013 there was am article on tennis.com where Harrison said he could reach the top 10 in the world. It would be very interesting to know if Harrison still believes it. Many have found Harrison to be spoiled and whiny. The old anecdote that you have to love winning more then you hate losing poses a real problem for a player like Harrison. When he loses you can just read the anger on his face.
Harrison has recently been compared to fellow American Donald Young who also did not live up to expectations. However, this might be part of a bigger problem, which Americans putting too much pressure too quickly on young tennis players. It would be shocking to see Harrison get a Wild Card in to this year’s US Open.
At the moment, Harrison has the potential to be a top 100 player, possibly top 75 but simply put he is not going to be able to lead American tennis. Even though he is only 23 years old Harrison has shown too many vulnerabilities to be a top ten player or a top American. Not to mention the fact that the pressure of trying to carry American tennis on his shoulders would be too great. Unless he makes a radical change, this is just the reality of where Harrison’s career is headed right now.
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