JOHANNESBURG – Rising South African tennis star, Lloyd Harris shot up 16 places in the ATP world rankings to a career high of 145 after reaching the final of the Aptos Challenger in California, USA, over the weekend.
It was the second week in a row that Harris had reached a Challenger final. The 21-year-old from Cape Town won his maiden ATP Challenger title in Lexington, Kentucky, USA two weeks ago and the unseeded player then reached the Californian final on Sunday losing to fourth-seeded Australian, Thanasi Kokkinakis 6-2 6-3.
This week Harris will be in action in Canada where he has a special exemption into the Vancouver ATP Challenger.
Meanwhile, Kevin Anderson remains in the world’s top-10 in sixth after reaching the last four of the ATP Masters Rogers Cup in Toronto last week.
Anderson lost narrowly in the semifinal to 19-year-old Greek sensation, Stefanos Tsitsipas. This week Anderson will be in action in the ATP Masters Cincinnati event. Anderson is also ranked sixth in the race to London, where the year-end top-eight ATP World Championships will be played in November.
Raven Klaasen moved up two spots on the world doubles ranking to number 21 and remains the country’s highest-ranked doubles player.
On Sunday, Klaasen and his New Zealand doubles partner Michael Venus reached the final of the Rogers Cup in Toronto, Canada losing to second seeded Henri Kontinen (FIN) and John Peers (AUS).
Klaasen and Venus will also be in action this week in Cincinnati where they are unseeded. They are ranked fifth in the race to London for the year-end top-eight team ATP World Championships.
Chanel Simmonds remains the highest-ranked South African singles (338) and doubles (233) women’s player.
South Africa's Kevin Anderson remains in the world’s top-10 in sixth position. Photo: Warren Toda/EPA
The ATP rankings are:
South African men
Singles
Current Previous
6 6 Kevin Anderson
145 161 Lloyd Harris
478 480 Nik Scholtz
711 705 Ruan Roelofse
888 894 Lance-Pierre du Toit
1136 1144 Joshua Howard-Tripp
1294 1288 Siphos Montsi
1435 1428 Tucker Vorster
1458 1450 Richard Thongoane
1603 1599 Kholo Montsi
Doubles
Current Previous
21 23 Raven Klaasen
158 156 Ruan Roelofse
242 533 Kevin Anderson
271 270 Lloyd Harris
1178 1179 Nik Scholtz
1386 1378 Vaughn Hunter
1452 1448 Kholo Montsi
1452 1448 Siphos Montsi
1452 1448 Tucker Vorster
South African women
Singles
Current Previous
338 321 Chanel Simmonds
704 701 Zoe Kruger
1005 1008 Warona Mdlulwa
Doubles
Current Previous
233 232 Chanel Simmonds
1287 1286 Warona Mdlulwa