Russia’s Andrey Rublev took his career head-to-head record against South Africa’s Lloyd Harris to 4-0 when he won their men’s singles second round match at Wimbledon on Wednesday.
The Russian beat Harris by three sets to one to advance to the third round. Harris won the first set 6-7 after winning a one-sided tie-break 7-1. However, Rublev hit back in the match to claim the next three sets 7-5, 7-6 (5), 6-3.
Harris qualified for the second round by upsetting the promising American talent Alex Michelsen in a marathon five-set thriller in the first round. However, that match seemed to take a lot out of him as Rublev eventually cruised to victory in their second-round outing.
The 28-year-old South African has battled back from injury, first a wrist operation in 2022 and last October major surgery to his back.
“Back surgery is tough because I’ll tell you what – you can’t use your legs, you can’t use your upper body. You can’t do anything,” Harris said. “This surgery, I was in no shape, I had no condition when coming back, still in a lot of pain when I had to start moving and getting things going again. That was tough.
“As hard as [the wrist surgery] was and how tedious the wrist is, at least I was in great shape. I was able to move and be active physically. Okay, I couldn’t do anything upper body, but damn, I was fit. So that made things a lot easier in that perspective.”
Harris’ return to action post-surgery first came in February, after a seven-month layoff. It was not easy. He began on the ATP Challenger Tour and lost his first seven of eight matches, including two retirements, across all levels. It was not until Roland Garros qualifying that Harris won consecutive matches.
“It’s not easy but in the end, it’s a process and you try to make it as fun as you can,” Harris said. “When you’re back and you’re healthy and you’re playing good matches, winning matches, it’s all worth it in the end, 100 per cent,” he told ATPTour.com
