Lloyd Harris suffers shock defeat as SA loses Davis Cup tie to Israel

Lloyd Harris, No 34 on the ATP rankings, suffered a shock 6-3, 6-4 defeat to Yshai Oliel, who is ranked No 343 in the world.

The tie was level at 1-1 after Friday's opening singles, with Harris having beaten Daniel Cukierman and Ruan Roelofse losing to Oliel.

In Saturday's doubles contest, Harris and Raven Klaasen were beaten 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 6-3 by Cukierman and Jonathan Erlich.

"This was a very hard loss to swallow. We were outplayed in the doubles, but I thought we were the better team. We had more break points in the second and third sets, and they had one," said SA captain Christo van Rensburg.

"But that's doubles. Sometimes it goes your way, and this time it didn't go our way."

Van Rensburg said Oliel played sublime tennis to beat Harris.

"After a while we were just in disbelief at the shots the guy was hitting against Lloyd, and how close he was hitting some of them down the lines," Van Rensburg said.

"Israel played well - they played better than us - and unfortunately, it wasn't our day.

"We need to take this and regroup, but we'll keep our heads held high and look towards the future and learn from this."