Lloyd Harris played fabulous tennis at the 2021
US Open reaching the quarterfinal which is his best ever results.
The South African ran into Zverev and served for the first set but he allowed the German to come back and win the opening set after which Zverev cruised. He has also been impressed with the way the younger generation have played in 2021 and he believes it will only get better. Asked whether the big 3 is getting weaker he said:
"Absolutely, it’s been coming for a while. It’s been hard for the younger generation to just crack into those Grand Slams. Novak’s just been unstoppable until this very last match… I just
think he came up against an extremely difficult opponent on the day.
Daniil played some really good tennis and [he] just kind of reflects
this newer generation.”
Harris also noted several other players and their recent sucesses as well saying:
"There was Zverev winning the gold medal, Medvedev winning the other
(Canadian) Masters in the summer… so this young generation is really coming through. If you look at the top 50 now, I think there are more young guys in there than there’s been in the last 20 years."
He continued:
“It just shows you. Felix (Auger-Aliassime) had a tremendous run as well as (Hubert) Hurkacz got a Masters win in Miami, (Casper) Ruud winning three titles. This new generation is coming through nicely and
these are the guys I grew up with."
Harris concluded by saying it was time the younger ones take over:
“So, yes, I’ve known these guys for a long time, we’ve been competitive in the juniors already and it’s nice to see all of us progressing and now I think it’s time to kick out that ‘Big 3’ and let the younger generation take over."