SA top seed Lloyd Harris books second-round date with Taylor Fritz at US Open

South Africa’s top-ranked men’s tennis player, Lloyd Harris, booked a place in the second round of the US Open against No 4 seed Taylor Fritz on Wednesday after the qualifier stunned 39th seed Sebastian Baez with a straight sets 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 victory in Monday’s opening round.

Harris, ranked outside the top 300, served well to win 80% of the points behind his first serve against the Argentinian, and won 53% of points on his second serve. The 28-year-old converted 55% of the break point chances he created.

At the end of the match, Harris won 103 points while Baez won 75. He won an impressive four games in a row to see out the match after being broken early in the third.

His reward is a match against American Fritz, the equally big-serving baseline player who was beaten in last year’s final at Flushing Meadows by current world No 1 Jannik Sinner of Italy. Fritz accounted for US wildcard entry Emilio Nava with a 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 victory in his opening match.

It will be the third time the South African ace will face 27-year-old Fritz, with honours even after their first two encounters.

Harris is on the comeback trail, ranked 353rd in the world after a nightmare injury spell that required two major surgeries. His progress this year has been steady, reaching the first round at the French Open and the second round of Wimbledon. On both occasions he fell to Andre Rublev of Russia, pushing the world No 15 to four sets at SW19.

He again fought his way through a gruelling qualifying campaign at Flushing Meadows in New York, beating Spain’s Daniel Merida Aguilar to seal his spot in the US Open main draw, before seeing off Baez in the first round.

The nature of the victory over the clay-court specialist will no doubt please the South African, whose best Grand Slam performance came at the US Open in 2021, when he reached the quarter-final on his way to a career-high ranking of 31. He will need to be at the peak of his powers to have a chance of an even bigger upset against Fritz.

The No 4 seed and young hot shot Ben Shelton carry American hopes of ending a 22-year men’s Grand Slam singles drought on home soil.