Lloyd Harris of South Africa celebrates winning his match against Tommy Paul of the USA during day six of the 2020 Adelaide International at Memorial Drive on January 17, 2020 in Adelaide, Australia. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
South Africa’s Lloyd Harris reached a maiden final at ATP level after beating America’s Tommy Paul in Adelaide on Friday.
The 22-year-old rising tennis star won 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 6-3 against the world No 90 to book his spot in Saturday’s showpiece match at the ATP 250-level event.
Harris, who made his way through qualifying in Adelaide, also notched impressive wins earlier in the week against Spain’s world No 30 Pablo Carreno Busta (6-3, 6-3), Chile’s world No 36 Christian Garin (7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 6-4) and Serbia’s world No 40 Laslo Djere (7-6 (7/5), 6-3).
In the final, Harris will play either second-seeded Russian Andrey Rublev or third-seeded Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Harris entered the match ranked 91st in the ATP rankings, but Friday’s win has seen his ranking surge to a career-high 72.
The South African also performed admirably at the ATP Cup last week, losing a tight match 6-3, 6-7 (4/7), 3-6 to Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic, beating Chile’s Nicolas Jarry 6-4, 6-4, before going down to French veteran Gilles Simon 6-2, 2-6, 2-6.
Harris made great strides last year by qualifying for the main draws of all four Grand Slam events.
He also won his first Grand Slam match at the French Open when he defeated Czech qualifier Lukas Rosol 6-1, 4-6, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 in a five-set classic at Roland Garros.
Next week, Harris will open his Australian Open campaign against 14th-seeded Argentine Diego Schwartzman.
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