By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday March 20, 2021
South Africa’s Lloyd Harris fell at the last hurdle in Dubai this week, falling to Aslan Karatsev in the final, but the 24-year-old is taking mega positives from a week that saw him notch his first Top 5 win over Dominic Thiem, in addition to upsets over Kei Nishikori, Denis Shapovalov and Filip Krajinovic.
The hard-serving Harris believes he is right where he needs to be as a player, and he looks forward to the next step.
"I think this week I have really found my game, found the way I want to be playing, and still some tweaks I want to do, a lot of things to improve still, so I am looking forward to the work that lies ahead after a tournament like this, that's really exciting for me,” he said. “I still want to improve on so many things and do it better, even though I'm playing exceptional tennis, so I definitely think I have found the way I want to play tennis and now it's just about tweaking it and improving it a bit more."
Harris will rise to a career-high ranking just outside of the Top 50 (projected 52) in next week’s ranking.
"There are so many positives to take from this week, coming through seven matches," he said. "Aslan today was just too good, but sometimes it happens like that. I am just going to take all the big ups from the week and just move forward and take it into the next tournaments."
He’s proud to represent South Africa as its highest-ranked player and he told reporters he has been blown away by the support he has received from his home fans.
"Yeah, absolutely that's amazing,” he said. “I'm so happy with all the support I've received throughout the week. Up until this point, I'm sure I'm going to have a million messages on my phone once I get there again. Hopefully this just gives the kids back home some belief, to also get inspired to become a tennis player out of South Africa. Ultimately I'm just trying to showcase what us South Africans can do and the support from the country, the support from friends and family back home has just been tremendous, so I really appreciate all of the messages, all of the support and all of the hype throughout the week - it's just been absolutely incredible."
The 6’4” bomb server hopes that he can turn a corner and enter the Top 50 in the coming months. He says that weeks like this will only make him believe in himself more.
"But I think the more you've grown confident and believe, it just allows you to go out on the court against these top guys and kind of believe that you can also beat them,” he said. “I think just a few wins in the last couple of days has really … the frame of mind in my head that I can go out there and compete and play with anyone. That I'm just as good as the top guys on the tour."