It was the stuff of nightmares for South Africa’s tennis stars at the Australian Open yesterday, with both Lloyd Harris and Kevin Anderson knocked out in the first round.
Capetonian Harris, who was seeded 30th for the tournament, was the first to go when he went down to homeboy Aleksandar Vukic.
Harris, 24, began brightly and won the first set 6-4, but then lost the next three 6-3, 7-5, 7-6 to go down in four sets.
Anderson, 35, then carried the hopes of the nation in the men’s singles draw when he stepped onto the court against 23rd seed American Reilly Opelka.
Amazingly both players are over 2m tall, with Opelka dwarfing Anderson (2.03m) at 2.11m.
Serving 23 aces to the South African’s 11, Opelka won the match in straight sets - 6-3, 6-4, 7-6.
With Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer both missing the Australian Open for different reasons, Rafael Nadal has a great opportunity to become the sole owner of the record for the most Grand Slam wins.
Currently tied with his two great rivals on 20, Nadal kicked off his quest to make it 21 against Marcos Giron yesterday and won comfortably 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.
Nadal will next face Yannick Hanfmann in the second round tomorrow.