A Dynamic Duo
This past Tuesday at the U.S. Open, Louisiana native
brothers, Ryan and Christian Harrison defeated fourth- seeded Mariusz
Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski of Poland. Ryan Harrison, ranked 88th
who is 20 years old is one of the top young players in the United States.
Christian Harrison, ranked 1,025th is only 18 and just graduated
from high school.
The boys are from Shreveport, La but spent most of their
youth in Texas, playing together since childhood. Their dream of playing
together at the Open finally came true, relying on cues from each other
throughout the match.
"He’s definitely the one who is in charge,” Christian
said of Ryan. "I’m really excited that he’s my brother and we get the
chance to play together.”
They like to say that a huge advantage over their
competitors is the fact that they are siblings.
"Considering
tennis is both of our lives, we talk about tennis a lot,” Ryan said. "I
know his game inside and out and I know he knows mine just that well.”
Thanks to the crowd, Christian said he felt more comfortable
with his returns late in the third set.
"They started getting pumped up,” he said, "And we
definitely got pumped at the end.”
The Harrisons won the third-set tiebreaker, 9-7 and are
excited to begin their next tournament, Ryan opens his singles tournament
Wednesday against Benjamin Becker of Germany. In the second round of doubles,
the Harrisons will play Jonathan Ehrlich and Andy Ram. of Israel.
Within seconds of the end of the match, dozens of fans lined
the fence around the court, waiting for the Harrisons to sign autographs. What
a great duo!
