Teenagers aren't exactly known for their sense of big-picture perspective.
Eighteen-year-old Ryan Harrison managed to offer some up - minutes after wasting three match points in the fifth-set tiebreaker at a Grand Slam event.
''My ranking is still not even top 100 even if I win the match,'' Harrison said Friday after losing in the second round of the U.S. Open.
''Ultimately, that's the goal. You don't want one good week out of a year. You want a year.''
Harrison, who had to go through qualifying to even reach the Open, led 6-3 in the tiebreaker. Then he dropped the next five points to 36th-ranked Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine.
Stakhovsky won 6-3, 5-7, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6) in 4 hours, 13 minutes.
''Obviously I'm not the happiest person in the world right now,'' Harrison said. ''But looking back on it, it was a great experience. My ranking is 220 in the world right now, and I'm trying to hopefully get to the top 10. So I feel like one match doesn't make or break that. It's the experience of playing these type of matches that is really going to help me to get there.''
Harrison had upset 15th-seeded Ivan Ljubicic in the first round, his first Grand Slam victory at his second major tournament. He was the youngest player left in the men's draw and the lowest ranked.
It's a feat to be proud of - but not to be satisfied with if he ever is to turn this promise into becoming the next great American men's player.
''My general personality has always been, if I'm 10 in the world, there's still nine guys ahead of me,'' Harrison said. ''So I've always had the mentality where I've wanted to be the best and I've always wanted to be the top, to win Grand Slams.
''But with that being said, it's a ways away. You know, this was the breakout run of my career, and it's in the round of 64.''
The 24-year-old Stakhovsky has seen plenty of Next Big Things fail to live up to the hype. Asked about Harrison's potential, he replied, ''To do good to him, I'm not going to say any good of him.''
''Because usually, when the young guy's coming up, and they have all this publicity and everybody saying they're gonna be, they're gonna be, they're gonna be - in the end they're just losing it,'' Stakhovsky said.
''So I would say he got a huge amount of work to do,'' he said with a laugh. ''Huuuge amount. Like hours and hours of practice.''
Down a break in the fifth set, Harrison rallied to force the tiebreaker and earned triple match point. After Stakhovsky won the next two points on his serve, Harrison just wanted to get his first serve in at 6-5.
It barely missed, and Harrison wound up hitting a backhand into the net.
''Just kind of fell apart from there,'' he said.
A double-fault gave Stakhovsky match point. Unlike Harrison, the older player took advantage.
''I'm just lucky to pull out winner in the end,'' Stakhovsky said.
In a Freudian slip, Harrison at one point mentioned breaking Stakhovsky's serve in the third set. He quickly caught himself: ''Or in the fifth set. Sorry.''
Can't blame the kid for the slip-up. He's only played a few five-set matches in his life.
His leg started to cramp up during his post-match news conference, but otherwise Harrison showed little sign of fatigue. He was carried by the roars of the fans who packed the Grandstand and peered in from neighboring Louis Armstrong Stadium.
''That was incredible,'' he said. ''There were some balls that I ran down and was able to scoop up and get back in the point, win some points, just because of the energy and the electricity that I'm feeling because of everything. I can't remember the last time I was, late in a match like that, jogging off every changeover.''
Stakhovsky has won seven straight matches after capturing his second title of the year last week at New Haven. He reached the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time, where he will face 23rd-seeded Feliciano Lopez.
Harrison can return to training in Bradenton, Fla., knowing he now has the blueprint to win this match next time.
''I can honestly say that this is the first time in my career that I've had a clear-cut picture of how I want to play, how I want to compete, and how I want to base my game around,'' he said. ''This is how I'm going to come up and play at the highest level.''
