NEW YORK — “Let’s go, Ryan!”
Clap-clap-clap-clap- clap.
“Let’s go, Ryan!”
Clap-clap-clap-clap-clap.
On his way to victory at Louis Armstrong Stadium on Friday, the highest-seeded American man left in the U.S. Open, No. 18 John Isner, could hear the wild cheering and chanting going on at the adjacent Grandstand in support of another American man, Ryan Harrison, a qualifier who was the lowest-ranked (220) and youngest (18) player still in the tournament.
Isner, striving to be known for more than winning the longest tennis match in history, reached the third round by beating Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7), 6-4.
Harrison, striving to show he belongs at this level, came as close as possible to winning without doing so, wasting three match points in the fifth-set tiebreaker and losing 6-3, 5-7, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6) to Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine.
“I’m trying to hopefully get to the top 10, so I feel like one match doesn’t make or break that,” Harrison said. “It’s the experience of playing these type of matches that is really going to help me to get there.”
This was the second Grand Slam tournament of Harrison’s nascent career, and the first at which he won a match — and what a victory it was, an upset over 15th-seeded Ivan Ljubicic.
For Isner, this is the first major tournament he’s played since Wimbledon in June, when he hit a record 113 aces during an 11-hour-plus, 183-game, first-round marathon spread over three days. He beat Nicolas Mahut in a 70-68 fifth set, and while appreciative of the significance of that match, Isner is quite ready to move on.
“I don’t want that to be, like, the lasting image of my career,” the 6-foot-9 Isner said after finishing with 24 aces against the 63rd-ranked Chiudinelli. “So that’s up to me to make it not that way. It’s up to me to do well in big tournaments, tournaments such as this.”
He can match his best Grand Slam showing by getting to the fourth round if he beats No. 12 Mikhail Youzhny next.
Isner, who won an NCAA championship at the University of Georgia, was joined in the third round by No. 20 Sam Querrey, a 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 winner over Marcel Granollers of Spain. Of 15 U.S. men originally in the draw, four are left: Isner, Querrey, No. 19 Mardy Fish and wild card James Blake. Fish and Blake play third- round matches today.
“Hopefully it’ll continue on, and hopefully, James and Mardy and other Americans will keep moving forward, too,” said Querrey, who now faces No. 4 Andy Murray, the 2008 runner-up in New York.
Murray beat Jamaica’s Dustin Brown 7-5, 6-3, 6-0, and other seeded winners included No. 8 Fernando Verdasco, No. 10 David Ferrer, No. 23 Feliciano Lopez and No. 31 David Nalbandian.
Top-seeded Rafael Nadal was scheduled to play at night.
There were no upsets in women’s third-round play, other than, perhaps, the fact Kim Clijsters lost the first three games of her match before coming back to defeat No. 27 Petra Kvitova 6-3, 6-0.
No. 3 Venus Williams easily eliminated 185th-ranked qualifier Mandy Minella 6-2, 6-1.
U.S. Open/glance
Men’s seeded winners: Second round: No. 4 Andy Murray, No. 8 Fernando Verdasco, No. 10 David Ferrer, No. 12 Mikhail Youzhny, No. 18 John Isner, No. 20 Sam Querrey, No. 23 Feliciano Lopez, No. 25 Stanislas Wawrinka and No. 31 David Nalbandian.
Men’s seeded losers: None.
Women’s seeded winners: Third round: No. 2 Kim Clijsters, No. 5 Sam Stosur, No. 6 Francesca Schiavone, No. 12 Elena Dementieva and No. 20 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Women’s seeded losers: No. 24 Daniela Hantuchova, No. 27 Petra Kvitova and No. 29 Alona Bondarenko.
Today on TV: CBS, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. (live); Tennis Channel, 5-9 p.m. (live), 9-10 p.m. (highlights).
