Tennis
Harris knocked out in US Open quarter-finals─── MORGAN PIEK 08:09 Thu, 09 Sep 2021
Lloyd Harris has been knocked out of the 2021 US Open being played at Flushing Meadows in New York. On Wednesday the South Africa was beaten in straight-sets by the world number four, Alexander Zverev.
Harris missed out on winning the first sets twice, only for Zverev to eventually win the first set in a tie-breaker and from there it was plain sailing for a 7-6, 6-3 and 6-4 win.
Zverev goes on to face the world number one, Novak Djokovic, in the semi-finals.
Following the match, Harris said it was a bitter pill to swallow, but he is happy with making the quarter-finals of the Grand Slam for the first time.
“The tournament as a whole was really good. Had some big wins, top players, a lot of seeds I took out. Played a five-setter. Physically I was in good shape. Even today.
“I feel like there's a lot I learned from this week, a lot I can take moving forward. I mean, I'm really happy with the tournament as a whole, for sure. It's my first quarter-finals at a slam, so we'll take that.”
The 24-year-old who will move up in the rankings added that reaching the last eight of a major evening definitely boosts the confidence.
“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, yeah, you'll definitely go into those matches with a bit more confidence.
“I think hopefully this is just the start of big things. Hopefully, I can turn this into some more good results.”
Next week, Harris will represent South Africa in the Davis Cup in their World Group II tie against Venezuela in New York.
@MorganPiek OFM Sport