South African tennis ace Lloyd Harris won his opening match at the Halle grass court event on Tuesday, beating French veteran Gael Monfils 6-4, 6-4.
The 24-year-old Capetonian was sublime on his own serve, hitting six aces and never facing a break point. He broke world No 16 Monfils' serve once in each set to advance in one hour and eight minutes.
Harris, the current world No 51, next faces either Guido Pella of Argentina or Lukas Lacko of Slovakia.
There are some big names in action at this week's ATP 500 level event in Germany, including 10-time champion from Switzerland Roger Federer, top-seeded Russian Daniil Medvedev and third seed and home hope Alexander Zverev.
Well played ??
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) June 15, 2021
In his Halle debut, 24 year-old @lloydharris63 overcomes the 8th seed, Monfils 6-4 6-4 to progress to the second round#NoventiOpen pic.twitter.com/TMLkEOUwcZ
Meanwhile South Africa's other singles player, Kevin Anderson, is in action in another Challenger event in Nottingham, England this week.
Anderson, currently down at No 101 in the ATP rankings, will face America Denis Kudla in his opening match on Tuesday afternoon.
Anderson played a Challenger at the same venue last week where he lost 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (11/9) to Romanian Marius Copil in the quarter-finals.
The Challenger circuit is the second tier of men's professional tennis, just below the ATP Tour.