SA tennis star Lloyd Harris moves inside top-150 in singles rankings

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.