Stellenbosch, South Africa – 18-year-old Capetonian Lloyd Harris impressed on the first day of the Digicall Futures tennis tournament in Stellenbosch.
The tournament is the first of three international Futures tournaments being played at the university of Stellenbosch with the finals this Sunday.
Harris – a member of the South African Davis Cup Squad – is seeded fourth in the tournament. He started on track in Coetzenberg with an easy 6-0, 6-3 win over unseeded countryman John Myburgh. “It was a satisfactory start to the tournament for me. I certainly did not play my best, but I still have to get used to the courts I find that they are a little slower than what I am used to. I do not have any specific expectations for the week. I just want to play good tennis and see how far I will go. ”
Harris, South Africa’s top junior player’s next opponent is Australia’s Stefan Vujic.
Another South African junior Timothy Dollman is also through to the second round after impressively defeating fellow South African Yaseen Ibrahim in three sets 7-6, 3-6 and 6-3. Dollman was a finalist in the two Curro Junior ITF Tournaments played at the same venue in the over the last two weeks.
Other Tuesday first round winners in the men were; fifth seed Javier Pulgar-Garciaof Spain, sixth seed James Marsalek of Great Britain, eighth seed Luca Pancaldi of Italy, Stefan Vujic Australia, Sebastian Precjtel of Germany and Bernd Kossler of Austria. The women’s Tuesday first round winners were; Second seed Jasmin Jebawy of Germany, third seed Jaeda Daniel of the USA, Valeria Bhunu of Zimbabwe, Lesedi Jacobs Namibia, South African Alexis Tensfeldt, Anne-Sophie Courteau of Canada and Lauren McMinn Great Britain.
Wednesday sees a continuation of round 1 with several matches to look forward to. The top-seeded Pascal Brunner of Austria will go up against Stellenbosch junior and tournament qualifier Rossouw Norval.
Local fans will also be looking forward to the second seed Nik Scholtz’s match. Scholtz is a native of Boland who has over the past few years been attending college tennis in the United States for Ole Miss (University of Mississippi).
Scholtz, a squad member of the South African Davis Cup team is also a favorite to win the tournament. His opening match will be against unseeded Daniel Tamir of Israel.
Matches on Wednesday start at 10h00.
