Cape Town - Rising South African tennis star Lloyd Harris has reached the semi-finals of the ATP event in Adelaide, Australia.
The 22-year-old upset Spain's world No 30 Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3, 6-3 in their quarter-final clash on Thursday.
Earlier in the week, Harris - who came through qualifying at the ATP 250 event - defeated Chile's world No 36 Christian Garin 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 6-4 in the first round and Serbia's world No 40 Laslo Djere 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 in the second round.
The semi-final result equals Harris' best-ever showing in an ATP event - he also reached the last-four of the Chengdu Open in China in September last year.
He will next face American qualifier Tommy Paul, who beat Spain's Albert Ramos Vinolas 6-3, 6-4.
Harris entered the Adelaide event ranked 99th in the ATP rankings, but improved to 91st when the rankings were updated on Monday.
The South African also performed admirably at the ATP Cup last week, losing a tight match 6-3, 6-7 (4/7), 3-6 to Serbia's Dusan Lajovic, beating Chile's Nicolas Jarry 6-4, 6-4, before going down to French veteran Gilles Simon 6-2, 2-6, 2-6.
Harris made great strides last year by qualifying for the main draws of all four Grand Slam events.
He also won his first Grand Slam match at the French Open when he defeated Czech qualifier Lukas Rosol 6-1, 4-6, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 in a five-set classic at Roland Garros.
He achieved a career-high ranking of 82nd in July.
Qualifier @lloydharris63 on the trot!
— Adelaide International (@AdelaideTennis) January 16, 2020
Takes out fourth seed Pablo Carreno-Busta 6-3 6-3 to reach semi-finals.#AdelaideTennis pic.twitter.com/G0pxOr6jE1
Latest results on day five of the ATP-WTA Adelaide International at Memorial Drive:
Men
Quarter-finals
Lloyd Harris (RSA) bt Pablo Carreno-Busta (ESP x4) 6-3, 6-3
Tommy Paul (USA) bt Albert Ramos (ESP) 6-3, 6-4
Andrey Rublev (RUS x3) bt Daniel Evans (GBR) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
Women
Quarter-finals
Dayana Yastremska (UKR) bt Donna Vekic (CRO) 6-4, 6-3
Aryna Sabalenka (BLR x6) bt Simona Halep (ROU x2) 6-4, 6-2
Danielle Collins (USA) bt Belinda Bencic (SUI x4) 6-3, 6-1