By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
Lloyd Harris, one of the fastest-rising players in men’s pro tennis and fresh off a quarterfinal finish at the 2021 U.S. Open, played a match for the first time Saturday at the historic Forest Hills Stadium at the West Side Tennis Club in New York.
It didn’t last long.
Lloyd opened the South Africa vs. Venezuela Davis Cup matches at Forest Hills and needed only 38 minutes to put South Africa up 1-0 after a 6-0, 6-0 blanking of Venezuela’s Brandon Perez. Lloyd only lost 10 points in all in the match, and that after going down 40-0 on the Perez serve in the first game of the match after missing his first three service returns.
It was the only time Perez made it to deuce in the match. Lloyd won 49 points in all to the 10 won by Perez. Each set lasted 19 minutes. The ranking differences between the two players is staggering, with Harris sitting at No. 31 in the ATP rankings and Perez holding an ATP ranking of No. 1921. In Universal Tennis rating comparisons, Harris is rated almost four points ahead of Perez, 15.33 to 11.80. While this year Harris has reached the ATP final in Dubai, beat Rafael Nadal in Washington, D.C. and beat Olympic silver medalist Karen Khachanov and Wimbledon semifinalist Denis Shapovalov en route to the quarterfinals of U.S. Open, Perez was going 1-12 in singles in college tennis playing for the University of Nebraska.
To boot the match, the first Davis Cup match to be played at the Forest Hills Stadium since the 1959 Davis Cup final between Australia and the United States, was only seen by 200 spectators as the matches are closed to the public as Tennis South Africa, the host nation for the series, did not want to pay production and permit fees for the event to be open to the public.
“This is an incredible venue, so much history, so much I learned about this venue in history over the last few days,” said Harris of the 98-year-old 13,000-seat stadium that hosted the U.S. Championships and U.S. Open from 1923 to 1977. “I’m obviously very, very honored to be playing and in a special place.”
Philip Henning, one of the top players for the University of Georgia, put South Africa up 2-0 following the Harris win with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Ricardo Rodriguez of Venezuela.
The West Side Tennis Club was chosen as the venue for this series due to COVID-related troubles in scheduling and travel and its proximity to the Billie Jean King USTA National Tennis Center and the U.S. Open, which concluded last week and is located just three miles down the road.
“I think it’s a very unique situation, playing a tie between South Africa and Venezuela in New York, but I think it’s pretty cool,” said Harris. “I think it worked out well for me since I’ve been here. So it was not too hard to travel the four blocks. And, yeah. I think I’ve had some nice momentum in New York and obviously, I was able to keep that momentum going today and played a really solid match.”
While Harris played in front of 20,000 fans at Arthur Ashe Stadium in the U.S. Open quarterfinals a week earlier, he said playing in the stadium where Arthur Ashe won the 1968 U.S. Open was also special.
“Obviously, playing in front of that many people, it’s unique, it’s different and it’s kind of that goosebump moment, whenever you play that big point or whatever, and the crowd is going crazy but this is a special site,” said Harris. “I’m just happy that there is some people out here supporting. I saw a lot of South African flags out there. So it means a lot for us, just to have those few faces that came out to support.”
