Davis Cup: Harris gives SA the edge with nervy win

Lloyd Harris provided South Africa with the desired start with a 6-4 6-7 (3) 6-3 win over Bulgaria’s Alexandar Lazarov in the opening rubber of the Davis Cup Europe/Africa II first-round tie in Newlands on Friday.

South Africa, who are seeded No 2 in this group with a No 44 World Davis Cup ranking, will now look to their No 2 singles player Ruan Roelofse to run with the baton in the final rubber of the day. He goes up against Bulgaria’s No 1 Dimitar Kuzmanov.

SA look to work their way back to the top in Davis Cup

Bulgaria are unseeded and have a World Davis Cup ranking of 64.

Roelofse is ranked 681st on the ATP Rankings while his opponent Kuzmano currently occupies 324th spot on the ladder.

SA’s number one-ranked singles player, Kevin Anderson, has undergone surgery to repair damage done to his knee at Wimbledon but the world number 18 has played just two Davis Cup ties since 2008 and has found it difficult to fit the event into his schedule.

At the start of his rubber, Harris looked like a man in a hurry as he ran up a 4-0 lead in no time. He found his range almost at once and he deftly placed his early winners in the corners.

In his early service games, he produced bouts of serve and volley and looked well on course for a runaway win in the set.

However, Lazarov had other ideas and he came good in his third service game as well as the next two. In between, he added a service break in the 8th and the set was delicately poised at 5-4 before Lloyd closed out at 6-4 after 44 minutes.

Harris the top ranked player in the tie

It was nevertheless a fine performance by the 527 world-ranked Lazarov who was up against an opponent with a vastly better ranking of 113.

The second set was a closely fought affair and the outcome was in the balance right to the end before it was decided via tie-break 7-6 (7-3) just past the hour mark in the first Davis Cup match.

In the third set, Harris seemed less anxious and his big serve came to the fore. Also, he changed tactics and kept plugging away at Lazarov’s backhand to good effect.

Harris’ next match will be a return singles match on Saturday when he goes out against Kuzmanov who has a world ranking of 324.