Lloyd Harris was born in Cape Town, South Africa on February 25, 1997. He started playing tennis at age three and got into the sport as a public court was next to his home. Between 2012 and 2015, Harris competed at many Futures level competitions. However, he had plenty of success at this level over three years.
Harris won his first Futures title in November 2012 and also competed at the Junior Olympics that year. Despite turning pro in 2015, Harris continued to compete in Futures events in Africa. He competed at many competitions across Africa and won four titles in 2015.
In 2016, the South African continued to perform well at the Futures level and won six more titles. Eventually, Harris made his first ATP tier event at the 2017 Antalya Open. However, he kept playing at the Futures level into 2018 and won three titles in March.
The South African started to play more regularly in Challenger competitions and he won his first title at this level at the Lexington Open. Decent form throughout 2018 helped Harris make the US Open qualifying rounds. He won his three qualifying matches but was eliminated in the first round at Flushing Meadows.
However, Harris bounced back and notched a second Challenger title late in 2018 at the Stockton Challenger. Harris was consistent at ATP competitions in 2019 and finally broke into the elite level. He qualified for all four Grand Slams for the first time in his career and reached round two at the Roland Garros.
In addition, he progressed to the Chengdu Open semi-final in September 2019. In 2020, Harris made a strong start to the season and reached the Adelaide International final. However, he lost in straight sets against Andrey Rublev in the final. Harris also played in three Grand Slams and progressed to the second round at the French Open and US Open.
After a string of early-round exits in 2022, Harris recovered with some decent form in the United States. He progressed to the third round at Indian Wells and the fourth round at the Miami Open. Following a dip in form during the clay court season, Harris announced that he would be out for the remainder of 2022 due to a wrist injury.
Harris’ comeback was slow and he suffered a second-round defeat at the 2023 Australian Open. The South African qualified for all four majors again during this season, but another second-round run at the US Open was his best performance.
