Todd Harrity (l) against Tsz Fung Yip

Team USA’s Todd Harrity produced a career-best upset over Hong Kong’s world No. 22 Tsz Fung Yip on opening night of the J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions Wednesday, January 16, in New York City’s Grand Central Terminal.

The result capped a sold-out session featuring three Americans marking the first time that three Americans played at the ToC on the same night since 1992.

The final match of the session saw Harrity, world No. 48, record his first career win in his eighth appearance on the Oracle NetSuite SuiteSuccess all-glass court in Vanderbilt hall against Hong Kong’s Tsz Fung Yip. The Princeton graduate recovered from dropping the first game to come back and win 6-11, 11-7, 12-10, 11-7 in forty-three minutes.

“It’s great after all these years, to finally win on this stage, I am just overjoyed by it,” said Harrity, who will play World No.7 Paul Coll in the next round Friday afternoon. “In previous years I have just been so excited, so I come out with my heart racing, sort of a deer in the headlights with sensory overload.”

The victory over Yip marks the twenty-eight-year-old’s highest-ranked upset of his career.

“I had some tactics to keep him in the back,” Harrity said. “He likes loose, random stuff, so I tried to keep it disciplined and I was having to go for chances. More than anything, I wanted to relax and just have a good, rich experience on court.”

Two-time defending U.S. champion Chris Hanson led off the session in what was his debut in Grand Central against former World No.3 Omar Mosaad. Hanson, a Dartmouth graduate and world No. 63, acquitted himself well and caused the Egyptian a number of problems throughout the 46-minute encounter, but Mosaad came through to take the win in straight games, 11-8, 12-10, 11-8.

“This kind of match is stressful for me because he played in front of his home crowd,” Mosaad said. “I just tried to focus, especially in the second game because I wanted to finish in three. I am training hard, really hard, and I think I did a good job.”

Mosaad’s reward is a second round fixture with world No. 6 Miguel Rodriguez, and he will look to follow up his 3-2 win over the Colombian at last month’s CIB Black Ball Open.

The surprise of the night came in the form of Harvard junior and wild card playoff winner Timmy Brownell. The twenty-one-year-old from Belmont, MA, marked his debut in the tournament took a shock one-game lead against Egypt’s Youssef Soliman, firing off winners to the amusement of the crowd. His former World Juniors counterpart recovered, however, edging Brownell 6-11, 11-6, 11-5, 12-10 after an hour. Despite the result, Brownell displayed his professional potential.

“I think both of us got excited,” Soliman said. “He was playing with his home crowd. For me it is the first time in the States and playing in this venue is definitely exciting. I was so nervous inside, I was struggling to find a rhythm because he played really well.”

The first half of the men’s second round will play out Friday in four sessions on the glass court, before the women’s first round joins the field Friday, January, 18.

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