Ryan Harrison's ranking took a turn for the better last weekend when he claimed the first ATP title of his career. The American won ATP Memphis and surged upward to the World No. 43 position. While he still was not unable to get a direct entry into the 500-series ATP Acapulco draw, Harrison is the No. 1 seed in the qualifiers.
Harrison needs two match wins for entry
Qualifying for the main draw requires winning two games. Harrison's first-round match in the qualifying tournament will be against Australian player Matthew Ebden. The Aussie is 29 years old and presently trying to work himself back into some relevance on the ATP Tour.
He enters Acapulco quallies as the World No. 348 and should not be much of a threat to a recent titlist like Harrison.
However, Ebden's confidence might be buoyed by the fact that he won the only head-to-head meeting between the two players in a tour-level match. That took place in Shanghai way back in 2011, a tournament that was played on the hard-court surface (like Acapulco). The two players also met on outdoor grass in 2015. However, that was on the challenger circuit. Ebden could ground some confidence from that result as well as he put up an impressive 6-0, 6-2 score.
If we looked ahead in qualifiers, then a victorious Harrison would face either Tobias Kamke or Yoshihito Nishioka. If the American plays at all like he did in Memphis, neither of those two players is really all that threatening.
For sure, Harrison is the clear favorite to emerge as the qualifier in his section of the draw. Other hopeful Americans in the Mexican tournament are Taylor Fritz, Stefan Kozlov, Jared Donaldson, and Frances Tiafoe.
The main draw has the big names
The main draw for the tournament will be played out next. The event will feature Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Milos Raonic, and several other high-ranked players on tour.
They will all be looking to get into top form before the start of Indian Wells and Miami, two Masters Series events. Should Harrison make the main draw, he's not likely to threaten for the final, but if he ends up in a good section, a middle-round run might be a realistic enough goal for him.
