South Africas Lloyd Harris was eliminated from Wimbledon after going down in five sets in his second round match against American Ben Shelton on Thursday.
After Harris hit a final backhand passing shot wide, Shelton dropped his racquet to the Court 18 grass and held his arms outward. Not only was the American celebrating a memorable victory, but he was seemingly saying with his motion, How about that?
For the second consecutive match at Wimbledon, the 21-year-old survived in five sets. The 14th-seeded Shelton battled past qualifier Lloyd Harris 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-6(10-7) in a gripping three-hour, 14-minute encounter.
The atmosphere was closer to that of a football match than what you might expect at SW19. When Shelton attacked Harris backhand to force an error at 6/5 in the final-set tie-break, earning a critical mini-break, fans burst out into chants of USA! USA! USA! It is only fitting it is the fourth of July.
Among those watching from the terrace above were tournament director Jamie Baker, Lleyton Hewitts son Cruz Hewitt and the USTAs Martin Blackman.
