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Patna : Qualifier Lloyd George Muirhead Harris, 24, South Africa, battled past 3rd seed & World No 12 Denis Shapovalov, 21, Canada, in a three-set thriller in semi-finals of Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, an ATP 500 event, at Dubai, UAE, on March 19, 2021, night, to reach the final of the tournament. Harris had upset top seed & reigning US Open Champion Dominic Thiem, 27, Austria, in straight sets in 2nd round.
World No 81 Harris defeated Shapovalov 6-7, 6-4, 7-6 in 2 hrs 42 minutes in first semi-finals rallying back from one set down. Both the players won one tiebreak each. But, Harris also won 2 beak points during the match to 1 by the Canadian. The South African won 5 games in a row during the match to 3 by Shapovalov. Harris hammered 12 Aces in the match to 8 by the Canadian. Harris, in all, won 112 points during the match to 101 by Shapovalov.
Harris will face the winner of the second SFs between 2nd seed Andrey Rublev, Russia, and World No 42 Aslan karatsev, 27, Russia, in the final on March 20, 2021..