JOHANNESBURG - Following his run to the quarterfinals of the US Open in New York on Wednesday, South Africa’s Lloyd Harris is hoping to build on his rapidly improving play.
Harris, 24, was unable to produce his best in his quarterfinal match against Germany’s fourth seed Alex Zverev who triumphed in straight sets 7-6 6-3 6-4.
The unseeded Harris beat seventh seed Canadian Denis Shapovalov in straight sets, American 22nd seed Reilly Opelka in four sets and Russian 25th seed Karen Khachanov in five on his way to the quarterfinal.
“I think hopefully this is just the start of big things. Hopefully I can turn this into some more good results,” said the 46th world-ranked Harris afterwards.
Despite not being able to produce his best against Zverev who is ranked fourth in the world, Harris said he will learn from the experience.
“You get a lot of confidence in your game. You see you can beat all these top players. If you go deep into a tournament like this, you've got some more belief. Especially in some of the smaller tournaments, when you play some of the guys ranked around the same ranking as me or even lower. I’ll definitely go into those matches with a bit more confidence.”
Harris broke Zverev to lead 5-3 in the first set, but the German broke back to send it to a tiebreak. In the breaker, Harris had a set point at 6-5, but could not convert as Zverev claimed it 8-6.
The young SA player lost his temper after the tiebreak, and threw his drink bottle onto the court which spilt near the net. It meant Harris and the court staff had to dry the playing surface with towels for several minutes before the second set could begin.
The moment of Lloyd Harris' tennis career.
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 5, 2021
The 🇿🇦 reaches Round 4 in a Grand Slam for the first time. pic.twitter.com/P8cBORVvV2
Harris said: “It obviously was not an easy one to swallow today. I mean, was a little bit of a roller coaster match. I had my opportunities. It didn't exactly go my way.
“Yeah, my level wasn't quite where it needed to be. A little disappointing in that regard. Nonetheless, there are still a lot of positives to take from the week. But, not an ideal match today.”
African News Agency (ANA)