Harris loses in second round of French Open

Harris loses at French Open

JOHANNESBURG, June 4 (ANA) – After a promising first-set performance, South African Lloyd Harris faded badly and suffered a  4-6 6-3 6-3 6-2 defeat at the hands of the British No 2 Cameron Norrie in their second-round French Open clash, at Roland Garros, on Thursday.

Harris’ defeat also meant that he had given up a chance for a career-defining clash with the Spanish tennis legend Rafael Nadal who is the projected third-round opponent in this segment of the draw.

Unlike Harris, Norrie has already played Nadal twice on the ATP Tour.

Norrie was one of the players who had enjoyed a rich vein of form over the last two weeks, and he sounded a French Open warning by defeating the world No 4 Dominic Thiem in Lyon a few days ago.

At the start, Harris’ serve worked well. He was off to a flier after he secured an early service break in the third game. Harris cranked up the pace with three aces in his first two service games.

After Harris raced to a 6-4 first-set win in only 35 minutes, Norrie imposed himself spectacularly on the match and, in the process, won three sets on the trot.

By this time, Harris’ much-vaunted serve, which had always been an important get-out-of-jail card for him on any surface, no longer posed a threat. Over three sets, the gritty Norrie enjoyed five service breaks in the match that lasted 135 minutes.

Harris’ French Open sojourn continues on Friday when he joins Jonathan Erlich of Israel in the second-round doubles match against sixth seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, the 2018 Roland Garros champions.

Doubles star Raven Klaasen was another South African to taste defeat on Thursday. He and Japanese partner Ben Mclachlan went down 3-6 6-2 6-1 to French duo Lucas Pouille and Mathias Bourgue, the finalists at the 2020 Australian Open. – African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Michael Sherman