Stellenbosch, South Africa; Lloyd Harris, Nikala Scholtz, Chanel Simmonds and Madrie le Roux are all playing in the semi-final round of the Digicall Futures 3 tennis tournament played in Stellenbosch.
It was a good day for the South Africans.
Top seeded Simmonds advanced to the final 4 of the women when she battled past her fellow South African Ilze Hattingh. Simmonds needed just more than two hours to win their match 7-5, 7-5. She will now face American Lauren Embree. The fifth seed made easy work of her match against fourth seed Katharina Hering winning 6-1, 6-3.
The upset of the day went to Le Roux, who won a fiercely contested match against the third seed Margarita Lazareva from Russia. The unseeded Le Roux advanced after 2 hours and 39 minutes in three sets 6-3, 3-6 and 6-2. Le Roux will now come up against Germany’s Julyette Maria Josephine Steur seeded eight. Steur eliminated the second seed Valeria Bhunu 6-4, 6-4.
It was third time lucky for Scholtz who finally managed to get the monkey off his back when he beat British teenager Jay Clarke. The previous two times they played in the Digicall Futures series, Clarke won. This time Scholtz won in three sets 4-6, 6-3 and 6-4. “I did have a better game plan this time around. You never want to lose to the same player three times in a row. He is a really difficult opponent, because his defensive game is so strong and he loves a target at the net so you cannot come to the net against him. It was good to win today, but it was so tough,” said Scholtz.
He will now come up against top seed Jordi Samper-Montana from Spain. Samper-Montana battled past the German Christoph Negritu to win 6-4, 6-4 in just less than two hours.
Harris continued his winning streak with a hard fought victory over Brit James Marsalek. The second seed won 6-2, 2-6 and 6-3. He will play Italian Alessandro Bega who won his match against Swiss Luca Margaroli 6-0, 6-1.