SA star’s emphatic doubles win at French Open
SOUTH African doubles star Raven Klaasen and Japanese partner Ben Mclachlan opened their Roland Garros account on a winning note following a straight sets 6-3 6-2 win over French duo Lucas Pouille and Mathias Bourgue in a first-round clash in Paris yesterday.
The 15th seeds breezed through the match, which they sewed up in 63 minutes on one of the outside courts. En route, they claimed five service breaks and surrendered serve once.
Klaasen and Mclachlan will next face highly-fancied Australian duo Max Purcell and Luke Saville today. The Aussies were finalists at the 2020 Australian Open.
In the second round, the Klaasen/ Mclachlan combination will be joined by South African Lloyd Harris and Jonathan Erlich of Israel after their first-round triumph on one of the show courts at Roland Garros.
Harris and Erlich won 6-1 6-2 against Federico Coria and Diego Schwartzman of Argentina.
They have a tall order in the second round when they face sixth seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, the 2018 French Open champions. The big-serving Harris also has a singles engagement today when he meets in-form Brit Cameron Norrie in a second-round clash.
Norrie, the British No 2, is ranked 45th in the world and is one of the form players on the ATP tour this year, after reaching two ATP 250 finals.
SA No 1 Harris is the world No 54, and his emphatic first-round win over 28th seed Lorenzo Sonego suggested he is in a rich vein of form. The result marked his sixth win over a world top 30 players this year.
Some of his victims include fourthranked Dominic Thiem, 12th ranked Denis Shapovalov, three-time grand slam winner Stan Wawrinka and Kei Nishikori, the former US Open finalist.