An American mith (Roddick) not on his prime any more, and a new upcoming America star on the stage.
It seems this story has already been written.
Harrison reached his 3rd ATP semis in his career (all on the US soil) in San Jose defeating the Bulgarian qualifier Dimitar Kutrovsky 6-1, 6-4.
‘I’m definitely happy. I started out really well,’ said Harrison. ‘Whenever you win a set that comfortably, it’s only going to get better for him in the second set. It was pretty comfortable. Obviously, it could have gone either way there at the end. But I was excited to get through.’
Roddick had a very unfortunate day losing 6-2 6-4 with unseeded Denis Istomin.The American praised his opponent for his game ‘He played better than I did in every aspect. He played well. I was hoping to be able to serve my way into it. That didn’t work. From there, it was tough,’
An elated Istomin commented ‘I really like the court here. It’s good for my game. He’s a former No. 1 [and] very difficult to play against. I’m working hard to get the best ranking. I just try to win every match and hope to be healthy.’
Raonic also had a very good day since he defeated the South African Kevin Anderson 7-5, 7-6(3).
‘Obviously, my job was to take care of my serve. That’s the most important thing,’ said Raonic.’If you fall behind, it’s easy for him to close out the set. It’s a straining match, but at the same time you just have to be patient.’
Talking about his title defence, ‘I’ve really tried to treat it as much as I can like another tournament,’ continued Raonic. ‘Obviously, coming somewhere where you are defending, there are a few more media obligations. But outside of that, you don’t really notice any difference from any other event unless you want to make it that way. I’ve tried to clear my mind about it and treated every match as if it’s another match.’
