Lloyd Harris – or to give him his full name Lloyd George Muirhead Harris -is ranked 84 in the world right now. That makes the 24-year-old from Cape Town the highest ranked South African right now, and he stands four spots higher than the better-known Kevin Anderson.
Harris has won 16 career titles on the junior Challenger and Futures tours, but has yet to win a senior ATP title, the closest he has got coming in Adelaide in January 2020, when he got to the final only to lose to the Russian Andrey Rublev.
However, many expert commentators believe that it is a matter of when and not if.
Of course, if he can have a career as good as Anderson’s then he will most likely be happy. The Johannesburg native has won five career titles, earning prize money close to US $17 million. He has twice been a Grand Slam finalist, beaten in the US Open in 2015 by Rafael Nadal, and at Wimbledon a year later by Novak Djokovic, after he was ranked as high as five in the world.
Sadly, injury means that he has not been seen on court as much as he would have liked recently, but he is slowly working his way back to fitness again.
Of course, Harris and Anderson will already be familiar names to the legions of South Africans who enjoy sports betting.
South Africans love their sport, and, when there is a little money riding on the outcome of a match or game, it heightens the interest for many. There are many places where they can place their wagers, as this casino list demonstrates. And, even for those who do not enjoy sports, there are many casino games which can be enjoyed, with players guaranteed that their security and protection is the number one concern of the operators.
Online casino betting is one industry that has thrived during the pandemic. Many people, confined to their homes by government lockdowns, have turned to gaming both as a source of entertainment, but also as a way of relieving the stress and the anxiety pf long weeks of isolation.
Meanwhile, elite sportsmen like Harris have been able to continue playing, though in most cases tournaments are held behind closed doors, for much lower prize money than they were used to before the pandemic,
And, like most of his fellow professionals, Harris was forced to undergo two weeks mandatory quarantine ahead of this year’s Australian Open in Melbourne, confined to their hotel rooms and only allowed out to train and eat meals.
That was especially tough on those individuals who subsequently lost in the first round, although fortunately for the South African, he reached the third round before losing to the American Mackenzie McDonald.
Since then, he has lost in the first round in Singapore and qualified for the event in Doha.
His immediate aim is to improve his ranking to the level where he starts to get automatic invites to tournaments without the slog of qualifying first.
That means a guaranteed level of prize money, and more glamorous matches against top ranked players.
And it will also increase his odds of securing that first, elusive ATP title.
