SA star Lloyd Harris 3.0 shows resilience with win over Marin Cilic to reach French Open main draw

South Africa’s top-ranked player, Lloyd Harris, served up proof that he is over his recent injury woes when he dispatched former world No 3 Marin Cilic 6-3 4-6 6-3 in the French Open qualifiers on Friday to move into the main draw.

Former US Open quarter-finalist Harris broke early in the first set and again in the final game to take a 1-0 lead.

He broke Cilic’s serve again early in the second set before the Serb, who has also struggled with injury, broke back.

Both players then struggled to hold their serve.

Cilic, the 2014 US Open champion, landed a telling break to take a 4-3 lead in the seventh game. The rest of the set went on serve.

Both players found their service rhythm in the opening games of the third set.

But the cracks started to show in Cilic’s game as the South African grew in confidence.

He got the only break of the set in the seventh game, and had to dig deep in his next two service games to hold serve and book a coveted spot in the main draw.

The 28-year-old had seen off Finland’s higher-ranked Otto Virtanen in his second match of the qualifying tournament, after a fairly routine victory over Switzerland’s Marc-Andrea Hasler in his opener.

Harris will face Russian 17th seed Andrey Rublev in Sunday’s first round at Roland Garros.

Few will give him a chance against the consistent Russian player, but Harris is used to overcoming obstacles.

The resilient South African spoke earlier this week about the physical challenges he’s faced over recent years.

Harris was tipped as a potential future star after a meteoric rise took him to No 31 in the world.

He was a regular feature at Grand Slams, reaching the quarter-final at the US Open in 2021.

However, wrist surgery in 2022 and back surgery late last year derailed his progress.

Since returning to competitive tennis in February, he has struggled to rediscover his top form.

“It’s been tough, but for me, it’s all about being healthy. Every match I get being injury-free is a mega win for me,” Harris told the rolandgarros.com website ahead of the clash with Cilic.

“What’s kept me positive is having a good team around – family, friends, girlfriend – everyone has been saying how much they believe in me.

“Even when you doubt it, you hear it from them and say ‘Okay, maybe I can make another big push’. But it’s all got to come from within.

“I thought last year I was getting the 2.0 of Lloyd Harris, but I had to go do another surgery... That was pretty harsh.

“You’ve got to rebound, got to fight for it, got to do everything again to start from zero.

“This is only the beginning. It’s the first true week that I’m playing some decent tennis, feeling good, so I’m very pleased.

“Hopefully we can come back to version 3.0 of Lloyd Harris.

“There’s a long journey to go, but I’m excited to be on the path finally.”