South African tennis has not had too many big names throughout history.
After the deterioration of Kevin Anderson, who we will get to later, a new player injured and one that Israel knows very well and is going to make trouble for us at the upcoming Davis meeting - and his name is Lloyd Harris.
Harris, 25, was born in Cape Town and lives there to this day.
Already at the age of 3 he started playing tennis, but alongside white sports he also practiced rugby, cricket, athletics and swimming.
At 15, he decided to focus more on the bat and the green ball he said, the least that bored him: "Tennis made me excited and really enjoyable. I was lucky enough to be in good schools and had all the facilities and tools I needed."
Harris' first big break in the round came in March of last year at the Dubai tournament.
The South African, who was ranked 81st in the world at the time, was stopped only in the final by Aslan Kartzev, with his journey usually to victories over four ranked above him, including Dominic Tim (4), Philip Krainovich (33), Kay Nishikori (41 ) And Dennis Shapovalov (12).
Five months later, Harris had already stuck the peg deeper.
The South African reached the quarter-finals of the US Open - his record achievement at the Grand Slam and his entire career - which gave him a straight jump to 31st place in the world.
"The King of All"
In an interview in France, Harris described the nickname "The King" that stuck with him: "When I joined the South African Cup of Nations team, I was only 19. The other players were 27, 28 and 30 years older than me. I started beating them all. Time then one of the guys, Nicholas Schultz (who also played against Israel in 2018), said I was “the king of them all.” Harris ’balance sheet on the team stands at 13 wins versus 5 losses (one for Dudi Sela) and one more win in a doubles match.
Lloyd Harris and Vichy Uliel.
The Israeli team is ready for a meeting with the world number 34, Photo: Oren Aharoni
Right now, Harris is South Africa's next big hope after Kevin Anderson.
The formidable tennis player, who rises to a height of 2.03 m, has previously reached two Grand Slam finals.
In the first he lost to Rafael Nadal in the USA in 2017, and in the second to Djokovic in Wimbledon a year later. At his peak he reached the fifth place in the world.
Anderson has suffered several significant career injuries.
In 2016 he underwent ankle surgery and recovered to reach the finals in the US and England in the following years and in 2020 he underwent another knee surgery, after which he was unable to return to the top. Grabbing the country's star slot is Harris.
The Israeli context
Lloyd Harris received a warm welcome in Israel.
Both from the Israeli audience who are excited to see a player in the world top here, and especially from the team captain, Yoni Ehrlich.
The veteran doubles tennis player has been collaborating with the South African in some of the round tournaments since 2019 and for the first time will play against him and more in front of the Israeli audience.
"I'm used to playing doubles with June and it's going to be weird to play against him this time, it's exciting, and I'm looking forward to good games this weekend," Harris said ahead of the match.
"There's always pressure when you play for your country. I hope to play good tennis and I'm confident in my team - we have a great team spirit."
Ehrlich, together with Yishai Uliel, Idan Leshem and Daniel Zuckerman do not intend to make life easy for Harris and his team.
The world number 34 is not expected to face difficulties against the Israelis in singles, so most of the team's effort will be focused on the two remaining singles games and the doubles game, in which Ehrlich will look into Harris' eyes, this time as an opponent.
Israeli and South African national teams.
Davis celebration in Ashdod, Photo: Oren Aharoni
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
If you found an error in the article, we'll be happy for you to share it with us
