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NEW YORK -- He choked. Let's just get the ugliness out of the way right now, so there isn't any hinting about it or hiding from it.Ryan Harrison, the 18-year-old American, fought all the way to the fifth set tiebreaker against Sergiy Stakhovsky, ranked No. 36, Friday in the second round of the U.S. Open. He was relentless, smart, fantastic. He was the buzz of Flushing Meadows, as everyone seemed to bull-rush the Grandstand court for any angle on the match, any fence to climb or tarp to pull back and peek through.
He was the future. He was hope for U.S. tennis. He was up six points to three -- three match points -- and was going to do it!
And then he lost the next five points. Harrison lost 6-3, 5-7, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6).
Balloon. Air. Goodbye.
"Winning builds confidence, confidence builds winning," he said.
I think he's wrong. Of course, he didn't actually win, anyway. But, to use his terms, this one is going to build winning.
Every tennis player who remembers competing as a kid felt for Harrison Friday. His choking wasn't a sign that he lacks guts or smarts. This was a different kind, a kind that almost everyone has to go through.
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Fifth set. Tiebreaker. Match point. U.S. Open.
Eighteen years old.
Only a player or two every generation would have gotten through that. Young players have to go through a learning curve just to play fifth sets at all.
There is a special air to them.
Add to that a tiebreaker? It was like watching your kid ride off on his bike for the first time. He's got it! But you know he's going to fall soon, and you can't do anything about it. He has to fall sometimes.
I asked Harrison about it, and he already knew.
"You know, I have my routines I like to go through, going to the towel, taking time in between points to reflect back and think," he said. "Honestly, there were a couple of times where I started thinking, 'Here's the score. Here's the situation.' I caught myself and just went straight back into trying to go into my routines."
See? The fifth set took his focus just for a minute.
Harrison will learn. He handled that match so well until the final points, showed so much, and then sounded so professional afterward.
He's just a kid, and this seems like a moment to tell the Gee-Whiz types of stories. At last year's U.S. Open, Andy Roddick used Harrison as a practice partner. After a while, Roddick bet Harrison $50 he couldn't beat Roddick's brother, John, who is the University of Oklahoma tennis coach, in a tiebreaker. Roddick was the chair umpire.
Harrison lost.
But those stories don't work here. Harrison is way past that in maturity. This spring, he told me all about how he changed his diet from what a teen eats to what a pro does. Roddick said Harrison asks a million questions.
Well, the biggest moments define a player, and not just in the record books. The U.S. Open is the test to see how your brain and body and guts will work together in the most trying times.
To me, this U.S. Open made Harrison, put him on course to be the real thing. He beat 15th seed Ivan Ljubicic in the first round.
Harrison hadn't choked yet, and there would be just three points left. Imagine that. He had played 250 minutes beautifully.
Then, one minute killed him. Two bad points and he was finished. Pete Sampras used to think that all big matches were determined by those few points, and counted on playing his best during them.
"I actually hit a kick serve (instead of a bullet) out wide," Harrison said. "I was trying to make sure I got the first serve in and trying to put pressure on him. Missed that one barely."
To me, if you're one swing from winning and you have a big serve and control of the point, you go for it. Well, he got his second serve in, and Stakhovsky was nervous, floating shots back. A few of those shots landed short, in perfect position for Harrison to attack. Instead, Harrison pushed back, keeping the ball in play. Then, he dumped an easy backhand into the net.
"I wanted to play a long point and ... try to break him down," he said. "I ended up missing, and then just kind of fell apart."
He double-faulted at 6-all, going for a big first serve. "I probably should have just controlled that one in," he said.
Stakhovsky served-and-volleyed on match point to win.
Harrison got a necessary evil out of the way. He has a fairly big serve, a game that is somewhat aggressive, excellent footspeed, smarts, the ability to stay back or come to net. I have seen him lose his cool before, but not Friday.
Someone asked Harrison, ranked No. 220, about why he came to net so much.
"The guy had a one-handed backhand and he was chipping a lot of them," he said. "Whenever a guy is chipping a return, it will kind of float and then land deep in the court, and then you're starting from neutral if you let the ball bounce."
He also said that some chips float high, a perfect spot for an attacking volley.
Americans aren't known for using brains in tennis. Harrison's answer made me want to check his passport.
"I've always felt I had a good ability to play well with pressure," he said. "But at the top, everyone does. Whenever the money is on the line, they come up big. That's exactly what he did."
Tough lesson, Ryan.
Painful lesson.
E-mail me at gregcouch09@aol.com; Follow me on Twitter @gregcouch
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