Billy Harris narrowly missed out on a place in the main draw of the French Open at Roland Garros in Paris.  

The 29-year-old was the last remaining British player in the qualifying rounds for the second of this year’s grand slams. 

Harris enjoyed a fine run through the opening two rounds of qualifying but was unfortunate to be on the wrong end of a tight scoreline in the final round. 

The Albany LTC vice-president began with victory against American player Emilio Nava, ranked significantly higher than Harris in the world rankings in 126th place compared to 202nd. 

Despite the rankings difference, Harris won the opening set 6-3 to take the early initiative before Nava hit back to win the second 4-6. 

But Harris responded in style by storming to a 6-1 victory in the third set to claim the overall win and progress to the second round on the clay courts at the prestigious venue. 

There, the ATP Tour player went up against Frenchman Manuel Guinard who had the backing of his vocal home supporters throughout. 

Again Harris got off to a fast start by claiming the opening set 6-3, helped by several aces. Similar to his first match though, his opponent bounced back in the second which he claimed by the same 3-6 scoreline to set up a decider. 

This proved to be a tight and tense affair as momentum swung back and forth. In the end, Harris and Guinard could not be separated as they were level pegging all the way to 6-6 and therefore a tie-break was required. 

Guinard stamped his authority on the tie-break early on by racing into a 1-3 lead, but from thereon in it was Harris who hit back to dominate in style. 

The Isle of Man player went on an impressive run to win the next six points to go 7-3 ahead and, while Guinard took the next one, Harris responded with an ace and claimed the next two points to round off a fine 10-4 tie-break victory to book his place in the next round. 

There he faced another tight battle against Monaco’s Valentin Vacherot, a player ranked 116th in the world and tipped to progress to the main draw. 

It appeared that the first set would go Harris’s way until a somewhat contentious line call - when Harris was on the brink of winning the first set – went in favour of Vacherot who was then able to turn it around and edge it 7-6 on a tie-break. 

The second set was also close, but in the end the Monegasque player edged it 7-5 to seal his place in the first round proper of the French Open.