Harris ‘super, super happy’ with big win

SOUTH Africa’s Lloyd Harris earned the biggest win of his career in the second round of the Dubai Tennis Championships, an ATP 500 event.

The 24-year-old qualifier shocked top seed and world No. 4 Dominic Thiem of Austria 6-3, 6-4 on centre court in the match which lasted an hour and 13 minutes.

Harris dropped only one point behind his first serve (29/30) and struck 23 winners to eliminate the US Open champion for a spot in the round of 16. This is Harris’ first win against a top five player. The 24-year-old claimed his first top 20 win at last week’s Qatar Open (ATP 250 event) against Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland.

“I’m super, super happy with that win. (He is) by far the highest-ranked player I have beaten,” Harris told the ATP Tour.

“I look up to Domi a lot so, for me, it is a special feeling. I am really happy. Just the fact that I am playing good tennis, match in, match out now is giving me a lot of confidence.”

Harris was happy to engage in backhand-to-backhand rallies early in the first set.

The Capetonian proved the more consistent player on the stroke to earn the first break points of the match at 2-1 and he converted his second chance with a cross-court backhand winner. Throughout the match, Harris held serve without being forced to deuce.

The world No. 81 earned the only break of the second set at 3-3, when he rushed Thiem with deep backhand returns and capitalised on two double faults. Harris closed the match with a powerful first serve into Thiem’s backhand. “I was serving really well. I don’t think I faced any break points,” said Harris. “I took control of those games and [in] one or two games on his serve, I gave myself a good look. I played some of the important points very well. I am very proud of that.”

Harris will meet Serbian 14th seed Filip Krajinovic for a quarter-final spot.