EXCLUSIVE: Lloyd Harris chats to The South African after Wimbledon exit

On a sunny afternoon in London’s SW19, South Africa’s Lloyd Harris played, and lost, his second round match at Wimbledon against world No 14 Ben Shelton of USA, ending his 2024 tournament.

This loss will be all the more painful, given that this was a loss of margins involving three tie breaks – as can be seen from the final scoreline alone: 6-4, 6–7 (5/7), 7–6 (7/5), 3-6, 6-7 (10/7).

Booming serves

The match was much anticipated for three reasons: 1. Wimbledon has heralded a comeback of form for Harris, after injuries and major wrist surgery, 2. This was the first ever meeting between the two, and 3. The match had been rescheduled from the previous day due to poor weather and light.

The location was also moved, from Court 12 to the very historic Court 18 – most famous for holding the longest tennis match in tennis history: Isner vs Mahut in 2010, as the historic plaque on its wall states.

Wimbledon’s Court 18 has also provided some of the liveliest matches.

And this one certainly delivered: the grass favoured both players’ booming serves, there was serve and volley, drop shots, lobs: pure grass court tennis in all its glory, to delight every fan.

Harris was reflective but positive during the post-match press conference. He talked about how close the match was, with both players having opportunities, both serving well, and that in the end, it came down to just one or two points.

“It was a hard pill to swallow, but it was a good level and there are lots of good things to take away from it”.

Up next for Lloyd Harris

Amisha Savani of The South African website asked Harris what his key takeaways were from the match.

Harris replied, “maybe I could have done a little bit better on his second serve, but he didn’t make it easy for me”.

Moving forward, Harris said that the one positive he could utilise from the match, and from Wimbledon, was the experience in competing.

He had gained confidence from the experience of playing in Futures, Challengers, Slams and qualifying as best he could: “qualifying is hard, you play against unbelievable players, and to win three matches is not that easy, so I’m super happy to have played two top players twice. The result shows that my level has picked up since playing on the challenger tour and I feel that it’s right there for the taking even against the best players”.

Lloyd Harris spoke of how the Wimbledon qualifying event was more challenging compared to qualifying at other tournaments, as Wimbledon qualifiers take place in a different venue to The Championships.

For Harris, the surface at the qualifying felt different to the one onsite.

Playing on grass was unpredictable due to the unevenness of the surface: “things can go so quickly and spiral away from you, whereas on hard and clay surfaces, usually the better player over the course of the match, wins”.

After a six-week stay in the UK for the British grass season, Harris was looking forward to returning home to Dubai before the upcoming US hard court season: “which is my favourite swing of the year”.

Atlanta, Washington, Cincinnati are up next for Harris, in the build-up to the 2024 US Open.

Amisha Savani is reporting from the All England Lawn Tennis Club, Wimbledon for The South African website