South Africa’s top-ranked tennis player Lloyd Harris won his opening match at a sweltering Wimbledon and will now face a familiar foe in Russian Andrey Rublev.
The 28-year-old Harris is on the comeback trail and featuring in his second Grand Slam of the year.
Ironically given what’s coming up, he came up against Rublev in the opening round in Paris and lost in four sets.
The Russian is the No 14 seed at Wimbledon.
In total, Harris and Rublev have met three times on the ATP tour, with Rublev holding a 3-0 record a dropping only one set in the process.
Hottest opening day in Wimbledon history
On Monday, with temperatures reaching 31 degrees Celsius to make it the hottest opening day in Wimbledon history, Harris won a gruelling four-set match against world No 50 Zizou Bergs, needing a touch over four hours to win 7-6 (9/7), 7-6 (7/2), 6-7 (7/5), 6-2 and reach the second round at SW19 for the third time in his career.
Harris built his victory off the back of his powerful serve, as he nailed 23 aces in the tie.
The opening set was dominated by the serve, resulting in a tiebreaker. Harris needed five set points, but he eventually took the set.
The pair traded breaks on the second set on their way to another tiebreaker, which Harris dominated.
Deep in the third, Bergs saved two match points to eventually force a tiebreaker which he won.
But the wheels came off for Bergs in the fourth, as Harris ran off the first four games in 17 minutes on his way to victory.
Lack of tournaments
Harris reached the second round at Wimbledon in 2024, where he lost to Ben Shelton in four sets.
The South African peaked on the world rankings at 31st in 2021, but a lack of tournaments has seen him fall outside the top 300.
But Harris seems to find a way in the slams, going as deep as the quarter-finals of the US Open in 2021.
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