South African Tennis Star Lloyd Harris Continues Good Form in Australia

South Africa’s Lloyd Harris has continued his strong run of form in Australia by winning through to the quarter-finals of the ATP 250 event in Adelaide.

The 22-year-old, who has risen to No91 in the world rankings, got past the No40-ranked player in the world, Laslo Djere, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 in their second round match after beating Chile’s Christian Garin, ranked No36 in the world, 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 6-4 in the first round of 64.

Next up for the South African is Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta, the world No30 who beat Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 6-2.

Harris entered the event ranked 99th in the ATP rankings, but improved to 91st when the rankings were updated on Monday. He reached a career high position of 82 in July last year.

The South African, who came into Adelaide via the qualifying route, also performed admirably at the ATP Cup last week, losing a tight match 6-3, 6-7, 3-6 to Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic, beating Chile’s Nicolas Jarry 6-4, 6-4, before losing to France’s Gilles Simon 6-2, 2-6, 2-6.

Harris made great strides last year by qualifying for the main draws of all four Grand Slam events.

He also won his first Grand Slam match at the French Open when he defeated Czech qualifier Lukas Rosol 6-1, 4-6, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 in a five-set classic at Roland Garros.

Meanwhile, still in Australia, but in Melbourne, where the Australian Open is coming up, organisers imposed a three-hour delay to the start of qualifying matches on Wednesday because of the ‘very poor’ air quality from ongoing bushfires in the country.

It is the second successive day the start of play was delayed because of the conditions in Melbourne. On Tuesday, Slovenia’s Dalila Jakupovic had to be helped off the court after retiring from her match. Air quality in the city did improve overnight but is still ‘unhealthy’.

WATCH Lloyd Harris win his match against Chile at the ATP Cup:

https://www.facebook.com/SAPeople/videos/500251100870494/