Victory in the Launceston International in Tasmania, Australia this past weekend has given Lloyd Harris a signficant career boost and a spot in top 100 ATP world rankings, that were released this morning.
Harris eased to a comprehensive win over Lorenzo Guistino from Italy in straight sets, 6-2 6-2, to lift the ATP Challenger on Sunday – the third of his blossoming career and the 21-year-old’s first title of 2019.
Having entered the tournament ranked in 119th place, the Capetonian jumped nineteen places to number 100, the second highest ranked South African on the rankings behind Kevin Anderson in fifth place.
Harris has now surpassed his previous highest career ranking (110th in the world), which was achieved in August last year.
On his success, he told local Australian media: “The win is a big boost with the ranking system and all the points you can get from winning this title…it just makes my route throughout the year a lot easier to eventually now break into the top 100.”
The South African youngster, who had been seeded first in Tasmania last week, faced off challenges from Australians Harry Bourchier and Blake Harris, Spaniard Nicola Kuhn as well as Dudi Sela from Israel on his way to the final.
“I started off from the first match serving well, playing well, just competing hard and trying to find my best tennis. It has just been a phenomenal week for me.”
“I was consistent throughout the week, I focused very well. I was just competing for every point out there and really tried to battle. I was making it really difficult for guys to break me, so that was one of the keys” Harris said.