Lloyd Harris

South Africa’s lone entrant in the men’s singles draw at this year’s Australian Open, Lloyd Harris, has lost in Round 2 of the tournament. Photo: Elsa/Getty Images

Lloyd Harris loses in Australian Open Round 1 DOUBLES

South Africa’s Lloyd Harris and his Australian partner Alexei Popyrin have lost their opening round doubles match at the Australian Open.

Lloyd Harris

South Africa’s lone entrant in the men’s singles draw at this year’s Australian Open, Lloyd Harris, has lost in Round 2 of the tournament. Photo: Elsa/Getty Images

South Africa’s Lloyd Harris and his Australian partner Alexei Popyrin lost their opening round doubles match at the Australian Open on Wednesday.

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The pair predictably went down to fourth-seeded Colombian duo of Juan-Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah in straight sets.

Harris and Popyrin lost 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) in a match which lasted an hour and 29 minutes.

Miserable few days for Lloyd Harris in Australia

The defeat completed a miserable week for South Africa’s top tennis player after he was shocked in the opening round of the men’s singles in Melbourne on Monday.

Harris, who was the 30th seed in the tournament, lost 6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 6-7 (3/7) to little-known Australian wild card Aleksandar Vukic.

Harris’ preparations for the year’s opening Grand Slam were disrupted by a positive Covid-19 test shortly after Christmas.

However, he did earn a cool R1 million for his singles defeat and another R170 000 for his doubles loss.

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Meanwhile, South African doubles specialist Raven Klaasen will begin his quest for the title Down Under alongside his Japanese partner Ben McLachlan on Thursday morning (SA time).

The pair, who are the 13th seeds, will play the Austrian-Dutch duo Philipp Oswald and Matwe Middelkoop.