Unheralded American loses

September 4, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

NEW YORK

“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, doing his best to look on the bright side. “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 if he beats No. 12 Mikhail Youzhny to make it to the fourth round.

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 Friday against 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 Saturday.

“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.

For comparison’s sake, there are nine Spanish men in the third round, seven of whom won Friday, led by No. 1-seeded Rafael Nadal.

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. The only seeded man to exit Friday was No. 29 Philipp Kohlschreiber, who lost 4-6, 6-3, 1-6, 6-1, 6-3 to former top-10 player Gilles Simon. Now Simon will try to end Nadal’s 17-match winning streak in Grand Slam tournaments.

Nadal saved all seven break points he faced in his 6-2, 7-6 (5), 7-5 victory over 39th-ranked Denis Istomin in Arthur Ashe Stadium at night, after 2000-01 champion Venus Williams easily got past 185th-ranked qualifier Mandy Minella of Luxembourg 6-2, 6-1.

“I had no idea what my opponent played like,” Williams said afterward, but apparently it didn’t matter, and she accumulated a 29-5 advantage in winners while her injured sister Serena watched from the stands.

Next for the older Williams is No. 16 Shahar Peer, who beat No. 19 Flavia Pennetta 6-4, 6-4.

There were no upsets in women’s third-round play.