And today at Miami Open, Monfils was forced to withdraw with a foot/achilles injury suffered in Indian Wells vs Kohlschreiber. And now Harris will enter the draw to replace the 16 seed and face Robin Haase in an hour or so.
Harris won a round in Miami Open qualies vs Alex Popyrin but lost to Thiago Monteiro 76 76 in the second round.
Harris just finished a unique warm up on the player field behind the stadium where he hit some golf balls, pitching chip shots at a pillow target, kicked a soccer ball, threw a football and rugby ball with his coaches. It was a cross training of four sports.
Harris will be on next match on Butch Buchholz Stadium after Muguruza vs Niculescu which is at 4-3 in favor of the Spanish woman.
Harris is now ranked 96, he has an 11-11 career won/lost record. He just turned 22 a month ago.
He has been an American slayer, with wins against Eubanks (three), Paul, Young, Aragone, Kwiatkowski in the last year.
I was told Harris has trouble finding practice partners among American players, which would suggest he is viewed as a threat and they don’t want him to collect information on their weaknesses.
He has also been snubbed by fellow South African Kevin Anderson, who according to my sources, has not exactly lent a helping hand to assist the journey of his younger countryman.
Today Harris gets a big opportunity to establish himself with his first Masters 1000 match win vs 31 year old Haase who is ranked 65.
Thanks again to Gael Monfils.
