Lloyd Harris is on a comeback path of note and has qualified for the Australian Open’s Men’s Singles. Not only this, but he’s also the only South African player who’ll be facing off in this event—go, Lloyd!
Melbourne, Australia (14 January 2024) — With the Australian Open (and first Grand Slam of 2024) kicking off today, we’re more than thrilled to announce that South Africa’s Lloyd Harris pulled out all the stops for the qualifiers earlier this week and has made the cut of the court!
Following a promising set of games and defeats in the Capetonian tennis star’s favour, it was announced that Lloyd had successfully nudged his way to the qualifiers on Thursday.
This came after a few significant challenges in the athlete’s career relating to injury, recovery and setbacks in the past few years. So, seeing the local player(who was formerly ranked 31st in the world) back and booming on the court was big.
However, Lloyd’s fire didn’t stop at showing face. Soon, he was the victor against France’s Syrian Jacquet, Spain’s Daniel Ricin, and eventually, Hugo Gaston, all to advance full speed ahead to the Australian Open.
Lloyd now stands as South Africa’s only participant in the men’s singles event.
While his opponent for the first round is not yet known, it’s safe to say that despite his hiatus, Lloyd is earning a reputation as a formidable competitor.
The Australian Open is on until 28 January. Even though Lloyd may be the only local in the men’s singles, he’s not the only South African we’ll be seeing with all eyes on Kgothatso Montjane and Donald Ramphadi in their respective events—two more reasons for South Africans to direct their support to Melbourne’s tennis courts!