Lloyd Harris and Nik Scholtz looked like streetfighters as they battled against Israel on the opening day of their Davis Cup tie at the Irene country club in Pretoria on Friday.

Harris, SA’s No1 player, endured a first-set brawl against Edan Leshem before putting South Africa 1-0 up with a 7-5 6-4 victory.

But Scholtz, despite coming back twice after seeming down and out, succumbed 1-6 6-7 5-7 to Dudi Sela, who at 97 in the world is 228 spots higher than the South African.

SA and Israel return on Saturday morning for the doubles and two reverse singles.

The weather might force play into Sunday, and it possibly cost SA a 2-0 lead on Friday, blowing in just when Scholtz had Sela on the ropes.

SA’s No2 had been blown away 1-6 in the opening set, but he stunned Sela with a second-set offensive.

Scholtz, who managed just one ace in the first set, fired off eight in the second, where he forced a tie-break, which he won 7-1, leaving Sela shellshocked.

That’s when an evening Gauteng storm closed in, halting the start of the third set for more than an hour.

The break cost Scholtz his momentum, and Sela took advantage. He broke the South African in the second game to burst into a 3-0 lead before Scholtz could find some kind of rhythm.

And then he started to hustle Sela again, fighting for every point and winning two break points in the fifth game before breaking back to 2-3.

Sela retaliated in the next game, but Scholtz survived four break points to level matters at 3-3.

The two went with serve until the final game, where Sela buried it quickly.

The anti-Israeli protesters outside the venue, apart from impeding traffic and shouting “baby killers” as fans entered the venue, didn’t do much to disrupt the tie.

The vuvuzelas they blew were relatively faint on court, although the noise from two thunderflashes early in the second set of the Harris-Leshem match were heard, but didn’t impact the players.

Harris, 289th in the world, seemed to be flying after he broke Leshem, 254th, in the fifth game of the first set and held serve to take a 4-2 lead, but the Israeli hit back, holding serve, breaking Harris and then holding again for a 5-4 lead.

Harris suffocated under the pressure and suddenly Leshem enjoyed two set points.

“It was a tough situation, always when you’re a break up and you get broken back it’s tough to get straight back mentally into the game,” said Harris.

“I think I slipped two points there I shouldn’t have missed and got myself into the position where he had two set points.”

That’s when Harris dragged himself off the canvas to hit a winner and reduce the deficit to one set point.

And then Leshem blinked, mistiming a shot into the heavens. Deuce.

“But then I played one good point to save the first one, he missed the second one and that really, from that point on, I flipped the switch and starting to get pumped up.”

Harris held his serve, broke Leshem’s and then wrapped up the opening stanza 7-5.

“Saving set point in a big important match like that gives you a big boost mentally and that helped me to up my game and go into the next gear.”

Harris broke again the third game of the second set and then he never let up after that to take that 6-4.