Harris out of French Open singles
SOUTH Africa's Lloyd Harris missed out on a career-defining match with Spanish tennis legend and king of clay Rafael Nadal after he was defeated by Britain's Cameron Norrie in a second-round French Open clash at Roland Garros yesterday.
The Brit No 2, Norrie won 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 and will advance to the third round. The projected opponent is Nadal, who will play Frenchman Richard Gasquet in a second-round clash.
Harris looked comfortable at the start when he raced through the first two games behind his lethal weapon, the serve.
Three aces in his two opening service games unsettled Norrie, who
dropped service in the third game.
Norrie was unable to overcome the setback and lost the first set 6-4 after 35 minutes.
Somehow Harris was unable to build on this advance, and he lost three sets on the trot.
In the second set, he dropped serve once and, in the next two sets, he dropped serve twice. In all, Norrie relentlessly converted five of nine break points that came his way in the encounter that lasted 138 minutes.
Harris returns to action today to partner Jonathan Erlich of Israel in a second-round doubles match against sixth seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, the 2018 Roland Garros champions.
Another South African, Raven Klaasen, also tasted defeat yesterday. He and Japanese partner Ben Mclachlan lost a three-setter in their second-round doubles match.
The 15th seeds were defeated 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 by French duo Lucas Pouille and Mathias Bourgue, the finalists at the 2020 Australian Open.
Harris is now the only South African still in action at the 2021 French Open.