Nanjing, China – The second Youth Olympic Games, being held from 16 to 28 August, have welcomed around 3,800 athletes from the 204 National Olympic Committees to Nanjing, China. Young athletes, aged between 14 and 18 years of age are competing in 28 different sports.
South Africa has only one representative in the tennis event and this is 17 year old Lloyd Harris of Cape Town, Western Province.
Unseeded Harris opened his Youth Olympic campaign in style when he beat unseeded Alex Rybakov of the USA 7-6 (10) 6-4 in the first round on Sunday.
“I felt good out there representing my country” said Harris after his victory. “What an experience this has been from the spectacular opening ceremony to going out on court representing your country. It’s a proud moment and now that I have the first round under my belt I hope to continue with the good run” said Harris.
Harris will now face the seventh seed, Nicolas Alvarez of Peru in round two tomorrow (Tuesday).
In the doubles, Harris is paired with Guy Iradukunda Burundi. They will be playing Kamil Majchrzak and Jan Zielinski both of Poland in round one.
