Lloyd Harris v Aslan Karatsev – Dubai ATP final – 20 March

South Africa’s top-ranked player Lloyd Harris faced Russia’s Aslan Karatsev in the final of the ATP Dubai tournament on Saturday, 20 March.

Karatsev continued his remarkable season by winning his first ATP Tour title on Saturday, beating Lloyd Harris in the Dubai final.

The 27-year-old, who became the first man to reach the semi-finals on their Grand Slam debut in the Open era at the Australian Open last month, cruised past South African Harris 6-3, 6-2.

Karatsev, who climbed from 114th to 42nd in the world rankings following the Australian Open, broke Harris’ serve midway through the opening set and twice more in the second.

It was his first ATP singles final, having won an event for the first time on tour in last week’s doubles tournament in Doha, alongside compatriot Andrey Rublev.

He dumped out the in-form Rublev in Friday’s semi-finals and backed that up against Harris.

Karatsev saved the only two break points he faced as he raced to victory in under an hour and 20 minutes.

LIVE: LLOYD HARRIS V ASLAN KARATSEV

Lloyd Harris pulled off an unbelievable comeback win over the third-seeded Canadian Denis Shapovalov to confirm his place in the final.

The 24-year-old South African needed some medical attention in the first set and trailed by a set and a break at one stage – 7-6 (7/5), 4-2 – but managed to pull things back and take the win 6-7 (5/7), 6-4, 7-6 (8/6).

He has won seven matches in a row as a qualifier, including against the world No 4 Dominic Thiem and former world No 4 Kei Nishikori.

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He was just three (return) games away from losing his first-round match to Christopher O’Connell on Monday, but will now fight for the maiden ATP Tour title of his career.

Playing out some grueling encounters and winning seven matches in the last seven days is an excellent effort from the world No 81 Lloyd Harris, especially considering he suffered an injury during his three-set upset at the hands of Adrian Andreev in the first round of ATP Singapore a few weeks ago.

Should he win the final, Harris will move up to 45th in the world, while defeat would see him ranked 52nd – both of which are new career highs.

Harris made it to the finals of an ATP Tour event once in Adelaide last year, where he won six matches as a qualifier, including a three-setter in the semi-finals, before failing against the Russian Andrey Rublev in the final 6-3, 6-0.

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