Kevin Anderson (tennis)

For other people with the same name, see Kevin Anderson (disambiguation).
Kevin Anderson

Anderson in 2016
Country (sports)  South Africa
Residence Delray Beach, Florida, United States
Johannesburg, South Africa
Born (1986-05-18) 18 May 1986
Johannesburg, South Africa
Height 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in)
Turned pro 2007
Plays Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money $7,141,506 [1]
Official website realifetennis.com
Singles
Career record 232–174 (57.14%)
Career titles 3
Highest ranking No. 10 (12 October 2015)
Current ranking No. 67 (21 November 2016)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open 4R (2013, 2014, 2015)
French Open 4R (2013, 2014)
Wimbledon 4R (2014, 2015)
US Open QF (2015)
Other tournaments
Olympic Games 2R (2008)
Doubles
Career record 53–63 (45.69%)
Career titles 1
Highest ranking No. 58 (17 November 2014)
Current ranking No. 588 (29 August 2016)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open 3R (2013)
Wimbledon QF (2008)
US Open 2R (2010)
Last updated on: 29 August 2016.

Kevin Anderson (born 18 May 1986) is a South African tennis player.

He became the top-ranked male South African player on 10 March 2008 after making the final at the 2008 Tennis Channel Open in Las Vegas. He achieved his career-high ranking of World No. 10 on 12 October 2015. He is the first South African to be ranked in the top 10 since Wayne Ferreira was No. 10 on 5 May 1997.

On 6 February 2011, he defeated Somdev Devvarman in his hometown of Johannesburg to capture the South African Open title for his first ATP-level event title. His second ATP title came at the Delray Beach Open in 2012 when he defeated Marinko Matosevic. Anderson won his third ATP 250 championship in 2015 at the Winston-Salem Open with a victory over Pierre-Hugues Herbert.

Anderson has represented South Africa in both Davis Cup and Hopman Cup play, as well as in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

In June 2016, Kevin co-founded the tennis instructional and lifestyle website titled Realife Tennis which offers in-depth online instruction and unprecedented access to life on the professional tennis circuit.

Collegiate career

Kevin has played three seasons of college tennis in the United States at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was a three-time All-American in singles and two-time All-American in doubles. During his sophomore year (2005–06), he won the national doubles championship with his

Professional career highlights

2003–2007: Early Career

At age 17, Anderson entered his first professional tournament, a Satellite in South Africa, winning four main-draw matches in the four-week tournament to earn a world ranking of No. 1178 from his only tournament of the year. He also finished the year with a doubles ranking of No. 902.

In November, Anderson entered his third pro tournament and won the Botswana F1 to push his ranking to No. 769. He followed that up the next two weeks in South Africa, reaching the final in F1 and the semifinals in F2 to finish the year ranked No. 665 in singles from just 3 tournaments.

At age 19, Anderson continued to play at the Futures level, exclusively in the United States, reaching the semifinals of USA F21 in August. In November, he played his first Challenger event in Champaign, qualifying and beating No. 192 Jan-Michael Gambill in the first round. He finished the year ranked No. 766.

In 2005, Anderson played his first pro tournaments of the year in June, again in the United States, reaching the finals of USA F13 and F21. He returned to Champaign again in November, beating No. 107 Kevin Kim to reach his first Challenger quarterfinal. He finished the year ranked No. 517.

In doubles, he won a pair of USA Futures back to back in June and finished the year ranked No. 530.

In 2006, Anderson again waited until June to play his first tournaments. He repeated as a finalist in USA F12, and then won USA F13 before qualifying two weeks later in the Winnetka Challenger and reaching the final to push his ranking to No. 310. He recorded his first win over a top-100 opponent in the qualifying for the ATP tournament in New Haven, beating No. 88 Chris Guccione, before losing in the main draw to No. 41 Arnaud Clément.

Anderson's most interesting result in 2007 was in September in the Challenger in New Orleans. He needed to qualify to make the main draw in both singles and doubles, and won all 13 matches that week to take the singles and doubles titles, beating four top-200 singles players and the top three seeded doubles teams.[2]

His Challenger success in New Orleans helped him to career-high rankings at the end of 2007 of No. 221 in singles and No. 398 in doubles.

2008: 1st Grand Slam Entry

Anderson began 2008 with a bit of success, reaching the quarters of the Challenger in New Caledonia before qualifying in his first Grand Slam attempt in Australia. He lost in the main draw first round to No. 84 Alejandro Falla in 5 sets, but his efforts got his ranking to a career high of No. 190.

At the 2008 Tennis Channel Open in Las Vegas, as a qualifier, he managed to defeat sixth seed Michaël Llodra in straight sets, 6–2, 7–6. In the second round he beat giant John Isner 7–6, 7–5. He beat Evgeny Korolev in his first ever ATP quarter-final 6–2, 6–0. In the semi-finals he won in straight sets against Robby Ginepri to reach his first ever ATP tour final. In the final, he fell to Sam Querrey in 3 sets.

In the second round of the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, he beat Novak Djokovic for his first win against a top-10 player.

At Wimbledon, Anderson and partner Robert Lindstedt of Sweden reached the quarterfinals before losing to the eventual tournament champions, Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjić.

Anderson also represented South Africa in the Beijing Olympics, defeating Komlavi Loglo before losing to Nicolas Kiefer 4–6, 7–6, 4–6 in the singles tournament and losing (with his partner Jeff Coetzee) to Nicolás Almagro and David Ferrer of Spain 6–3, 3–6, 4–6.

2009: Victory at San Remo Challenger

After a slow start to the year, he won the San Remo, Italy Challenger in May, beating Blaž Kavčič in the final in three sets.

At the Aegon Championships (Queen's Club, London), Anderson won three matches to qualify, and then defeated no. 57 Fabio Fognini in the first round of the main draw, before losing to no. 46 Sam Querrey in the second round.

2010: 3rd Round at US Open and Canadian Masters

At Wimbledon, he was narrowly defeated by seventh seed Nikolay Davydenko after winning the first two sets.[3]

Anderson advanced to the semifinals of the 2010 Atlanta Tennis Championships in July, upsetting fifth seed Janko Tipsarević in the first round.

He qualified and reached the third round of the Rogers Cup in Toronto, beating Leonardo Mayer and Sam Querrey before losing to no. 1 Rafael Nadal.

He then won his first Grand Slam match at the US Open over Somdev Devvarman in straight sets and backed it up with a five-set win over 26th seed Thomaz Bellucci.

2011: 1st Career ATP Title

He began the 2011 season by advancing to the semifinals of the Brisbane International Tournament, before losing to Andy Roddick in three sets. He then went on to lose in the first round of the Australian Open to Blaž Kavčič.

At the SA Open, (Anderson's home event), he claimed his maiden ATP Tour title, by beating Indian Somdev Devvarman, rising 19 positions in the ATP rankings to a career high of No. 40.

He reached a career-high of world no. 33 after making the quarterfinals of the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open. At the Atlanta Tennis Championships, Anderson reached the quarterfinals as the second seed, defeating Michael Russell, before losing in straight sets to Gilles Müller. Next at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, Anderson defeated Chris Guccione in the second round, before being defeated by Victor Troicki in the third round.

At the 2011 Rogers Cup, he defeated Pablo Andújar in straight sets before shocking an out-of-sorts Andy Murray in the second round with an easy victory.[4] He was defeated in the third round by Stanislas Wawrinka in a tight three set contest.

2012: 2nd ATP Title

Anderson opened 2012 with a third-round loss at the 2012 Australian Open. He followed it up with a win in Delray Beach, defeating qualifier Marinko Matosevic in the final.

At the French Open, he reached a career-best third round, where he was defeated by seventh seed Tomáš Berdych in five sets.[5]

2013: 1st Grand Slam 4th-Round Appearance

Anderson started the year at the Sydney International, where he reached the final, but lost to Australian Bernard Tomic in three sets.[6]

At the 2013 Australian Open, he defeated Fernando Verdasco in the third round, but lost to Tomáš Berdych in the fourth round. This was his career best in any Grand Slam event.

He played at Indian Wells, where he knocked out fourth seed David Ferrer. He reached the quarterfinals there before losing to Tomáš Berdych. He reached the fourth round of the French Open, before falling to Ferrer in straight sets. At Wimbledon, he lost in the third round to Berdych.

He reached the final in Atlanta in July, but lost his third final of the year in three tiebreaks to John Isner.

2014: 4 wins against top-5 Opponents

Anderson started the year by reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open, before being knocked out in straight sets by Tomáš Berdych. He then reached the final at Delray Beach, before losing to Marin Čilić in two tiebreaks. At the Mexican Open held in Acapulco, he again reached the final, losing to Grigor Dimitrov in three sets, with tiebreaks in the first and third sets.

In the Indian Wells Masters, Anderson reached the quarterfinals, after beating third seed Stan Wawrinka in a hard-fought upset in three sets. He lost to Roger Federer in straight sets. At the 2014 Madrid Open, he beat Radek Štěpánek, before losing to Tomáš Berdych. He repeated his success of 2013 by again reaching the fourth round in the French Open, before losing to fifth seed David Ferrer in four sets.

He then reached the quarterfinals of the AEGON Championships held at the Queen's Club, London, before losing to Radek Štěpánek. At the Wimbledon Championships he defeated Fabio Fognini to reach the fourth round, where he lost to Andy Murray.

Anderson made it to the quarterfinals of the Masters 1000 event in Toronto after defeating Fognini and Stanislas Wawrinka. At the Cincinnati Masters, he had a disappointing first-round, straight-set exit at the hands of John Isner.

He made it to the third round of the US Open, where he lost to eventual champion Marin Čilić. At the Paris Masters he again defeated Wawrinka to reach the quarterfinals, after which Tomas Berdych beat him. The South African ended the year no. 16 in the ATP year-end rankings.

2015: Top-10 debut

Anderson made the final in Memphis, losing to Kei Nishikori, but he made early exits in Estoril and Madrid. He then had a good run at Queen's Club, making the final before being defeated by Andy Murray in straight sets. He again reached the fourth round at Wimbledon, where he led eventual champion Novak Djokovic two sets to love, taking both sets through tiebreakers. However, he was unable to sustain his form for the next three sets and eventually lost the match in five sets. Anderson became the champion of the ATP 250 in Winston-Salem, earning his third career singles title. Anderson's big moment came in the US Open, where he defeated Andy Murray, advancing to his first quarterfinals in a Grand Slam after seven attempts. He won the first two sets, then lost the third set via tiebreaker, but after a hard-fought fourth set, Anderson pulled away, winning the tiebreaker 7–0 and captured the victory. He would next face Stan Wawrinka, whom he had beaten the last four times they played, including once that year. This was their eighth match overall, but the first at Grand Slam level. Wawrinka levelled the head to head at 4–4, beating Anderson in straight sets, including a bagel in the third.

Following a great US Open, Kevin traveled to Asia for the Japan Open, where he lost in the round of 32 to Gilles Müller. Despite this loss, he reached a career-high ranking of No. 10 on 12 October, the first South African tennis player in the top 10 in 18 years.[7] He then traveled to Shanghai for the Shanghai Masters (tennis), where he was defeated in the quarterfinals by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. This was followed by the Vienna Open, where he lost to Steve Johnson in the quarterfinals. Traveling to Basel next, he was defeated by yet another American in Donald Young in the Round of 16. He reached the third round in the 2015 BNP Paribas Masters, but failed to capitalise on a match point against Rafael Nadal.[8]

2016: Injury struggles

Anderson started his season at Auckland as the fourth seed. He defeated Robin Haase in the second round, but lost to Jack Sock in the quarterfinals, despite winning the first set. Anderson was then scheduled to play at the Chennai Open, but withdrew due to a left knee injury. Anderson exited the Australian Open early in the first round and was advised to take some time off to sort out problems with his shoulder. He took the break and also had minor surgery on his ankle while he was out.[9] Anderson then returned to Delray Beach as the number 1 seed. He lost the first set of his match against Austin Krajicek in the first round and then retired before the second set.

Anderson did not play on tour until May at the Madrid Open. He lost in the first round against 13th seed Gaël Monfils. Anderson then played in Rome as the 16th seed. Anderson won his first-round match against Feliciano López, but lost in the second round to Juan Mónaco, despite winning the first set. Anderson then competed in Nice as the third seed. He defeated qualifier Diego Schwartzman, before losing to fifth seed João Sousa. Anderson then played at the French Open as the 18th seed, where he lost in the first round to Stéphane Robert. Anderson started his grass season at Queen's Club. Since he entered late, he had to go through qualifying. Anderson defeated Edward Corrie and Jiří Veselý, both in straight sets, to enter the main draw. He then lost to Bernard Tomic in the first round of the main draw. Anderson then played at Nottingham as the top seed. He defeated Ivan Dodig and 14th seed Fernando Verdasco to reach the quarterfinals, where he lost to sixth seed and eventual champion Steve Johnson. Anderson then played at Wimbledon as the 20th seed. He lost in the first round to Denis Istomin, despite winning the first two sets.

Anderson played at the Citi Open as the ninth seed. He lost in the second round to Malek Jaziri, despite winning the first set. Anderson then played at the Rogers Cup. He won his first-round match against Viktor Troicki. He then defeated sixth seed Dominic Thiem because Thiem had to retire. He then reached the quarterfinals after he defeated 12th seed Bernard Tomic for the first time. Anderson, however, lost to Stan Wawrinka in straight sets. The US Open saw his best performance in a Grand Slam for the year, defeating both Yoshihito Nishioka and Vasek Pospisil in straight sets, before bowing out to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the third round, also in straight sets.

Equipment

Anderson currently wears Lotto apparel and uses Srixon (a division of SRI Sports Limited) rackets. His racket of choice is the Srixon 2.0 tour.[10]

Personal

Anderson started playing tennis at age 6 and was competitive in 800-meter races at school.

Anderson married his college girlfriend, golfer Kelsey O'Neal, in 2011, and they have bought a home in Delray Beach, Florida.[11] He is a permanent resident of the United States.[12]

Kevin, his wife Kelsey and former Coach GD Jones launched a tennis instructional website in June 2016 entitled Realife Tennis. The site offers practice and lifestyle tips from traveling the world playing tennis, as well as courses for improving one's tennis game.[13][14]

ATP career finals

Singles: 11 (3 titles, 8 runners-up)

Legend
Grand Slam (0–0)
ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)
ATP World Tour 500 series (0–2)
ATP World Tour 250 series (3–6)
Titles by Surface
Hard (3–6)
Clay (0–1)
Grass (0–1)
Outcome No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent Score
Runner-up 1. 9 March 2008 Tennis Channel Open, Las Vegas, United States Hard United States Sam Querrey 6–4, 3–6, 4–6
Winner 1. 6 February 2011 SA Tennis Open, Johannesburg, South Africa Hard India Somdev Devvarman 4–6, 6–3, 6–2
Winner 2. 4 March 2012 Delray Beach Open, Delray Beach, United States Hard Australia Marinko Matosevic 6–4, 7–6(7–2)
Runner-up 2. 12 January 2013 Apia International Sydney, Sydney, Australia Hard Australia Bernard Tomic 3–6, 7–6(7–2), 3–6
Runner-up 3. 14 April 2013 Grand Prix Hassan II, Casablanca, Morocco Clay Spain Tommy Robredo 6–7(6–8), 6–4, 3–6
Runner-up 4. 29 July 2013 BB&T Atlanta Open, Atlanta, United States Hard United States John Isner 7–6(7–3), 6–7(2–7), 6–7(2–7)
Runner-up 5. 23 February 2014 Delray Beach Open, Delray Beach, United States (2) Hard Croatia Marin Čilić 6–7(6–8), 7–6(9–7), 4–6
Runner-up 6. 2 March 2014 Abierto Mexicano Telcel, Acapulco, Mexico Hard Bulgaria Grigor Dimitrov 6–7(1–7), 6–3, 6–7(5–7)
Runner-up 7. 15 February 2015 U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships, Memphis, United States Hard (i) Japan Kei Nishikori 4–6, 4–6
Runner-up 8. 21 June 2015 Aegon Championships, London, United Kingdom Grass United Kingdom Andy Murray 3–6, 4–6
Winner 3. 29 August 2015 Winston-Salem Open, Winston-Salem, United States Hard France Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6–4, 7–5

Doubles: 4 (1 title, 3 runners-up)

Legend
Grand Slam (0–0)
ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)
ATP World Tour 500 series (1–2)
ATP World Tour 250 series (0–1)
Titles by Surface
Hard (1–3)
Clay (0–0)
Grass (0–0)
Outcome No. Date Tournament Surface Partner Opponents Score
Runner-up 1. 19 February 2012 SAP Open, San Jose, United States Hard (i) Germany Frank Moser The Bahamas Mark Knowles
Belgium Xavier Malisse		 4–6, 6–1, [5–10]
Runner-up 2. 5 August 2012 Citi Open, Washington, D.C., United States Hard United States Sam Querrey Philippines Treat Conrad Huey
United Kingdom Dominic Inglot		 6–7(5–7), 7–6(9–7), [5–10]
Winner 1. 2 March 2014 Abierto Mexicano Telcel, Acapulco, Mexico Hard Australia Matthew Ebden Spain Feliciano López
Belarus Max Mirnyi		 6–3, 6–3
Runner-up 3. 26 October 2014 Valencia Open 500, Valencia, Spain Hard (i) France Jérémy Chardy Netherlands Jean-Julien Rojer
Romania Horia Tecău		 4–6, 2–6

Singles performance timeline

Key
W  F  SF QF R# RR Q# A P Z# PO G F-S SF-B NMS NH
(W) Won tournament; reached (F) final, (SF) semifinal, (QF) quarterfinal; (R#) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; competed at a (RR) round-robin stage; reached a (Q#) qualification round; (A) absent; played in a (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; won a (G) gold, (F-S) silver or (SF-B) bronze Olympic medal; a (NMS) downgraded Masters Series/1000 tournament; or (NH) tournament not held.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated either at the conclusion of a tournament, or when the player's participation in the tournament has ended.

Current till 2016 US Open (tennis).

Tournament20082009201020112012201320142015 2016W–L
Grand Slam Tournaments
Australian Open 1R 1R 1R 1R 3R 4R 4R 4R 1R 11–9
French Open A Q3 1R 2R 3R 4R 4R 3R 1R 11–7
Wimbledon 1R Q1 1R 2R 1R 3R 4R 4R 1R 9–8
US Open A Q1 3R 3R 1R 2R 3R QF 3R 13–7
Win–Loss 0–2 0–1 2–4 4–4 4–4 9–4 11–4 12–4 2–4 44–31
ATP Masters Series
Indian Wells Masters A 1R 2R 1R 3R QF QF 3R A 9–7
Miami Masters 3R A 2R QF 3R 3R 3R 4R A 12–7
Monte Carlo Masters A A A 1R 1R 2R 1R A A 1–4
Rome Masters A A A 1R 1R 3R 2R 3R 2R 6–6
Madrid Masters A A 1R 2R 2R 3R 2R 1R 1R 5–7
Canada Masters A A 3R 3R 1R 1R QF 1R QF 6–6
Cincinnati Masters 1R A A 2R 1R 1R 1R 3R 3R 5–7
Shanghai Masters NMS A 1R 1R 2R 2R 2R QF 2R 7–7
Paris Masters A A A 2R 3R 2R QF 3R A 7–5
Win–Loss 2–2 0–1 4–5 9–9 5–9 12–9 12–9 11–8 6–5 61–57
Career statistics
Titles–Finals 0–1 0–0 0–0 1–1 1–1 0–3 0–2 1–3 0–0 3–11
Year-End Ranking 104 161 61 32 37 20 16 12 67

Men's doubles performance timeline

Tournament2008200920102011201220132014W–L
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open A A A 1R A 3R A 2–2
French Open A A A A A A A 0–0
Wimbledon QF 1R A 3R A A A 5–3
US Open A A 2R A A A A 1–1
Win–Loss 3–1 0–1 1–1 2–2 0–0 2–1 0–0 8–6

Record against top-10 players

Anderson's match record against those who have been ranked in the top 10, with those who have been No. 1 in boldface

*As of October 15, 2015.

Wins over top 10 players

# Player Rank Event Surface Rd Score Anderson Rank
2008
1. Serbia Novak Djokovic No. 3 Miami, United States Hard 2R 7–6(7–1), 3–6, 6–4 122
2011
2. United Kingdom Andy Murray No. 4 Montréal, Canada Hard 3R 6–3, 6–1 35
2013
3. Spain David Ferrer No. 4 Indian Wells, United States Hard 2R 3–6, 6–4, 6–3 37
2014
4. Spain David Ferrer No. 4 Acapulco, Mexico Hard QF 2–6, 4–2, ret. 21
5. Switzerland Stan Wawrinka No. 3 Indian Wells, United States Hard 4R 7–6(7–1), 4–6, 6–1 18
6. Switzerland Stan Wawrinka No. 4 Toronto, Canada Hard 3R 7–6(10–8), 7–5 21
7. Switzerland Stan Wawrinka No. 4 Paris, France Hard 3R 6–7(2–7), 7–5, 7–6(7–3) 18
2015
8. Switzerland Stan Wawrinka No. 4 London, UK Grass 2R 7–6(7–4), 7–6(13–11) 17
9. United Kingdom Andy Murray No. 3 US Open, United States Hard 4R 7–6(7–5), 6–3, 6–7(2–7), 7–6(7–0) 14
10. Japan Kei Nishikori No. 6 Shanghai, China Hard 3R 7–6(12–10), 7–6(7–3) 10
2016
11. Austria Dominic Thiem No. 9 Montréal, Canada Hard 2R 4–1, retired. 34

Ranking

References

  1. ↑ "ATP World Tour". ATP World Tour. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  2. ↑ "Search Steve G's Men's Pro Tennis Results". Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  3. ↑ "WIMBLEDON 2010: Nikolay Davydenko stages brilliant comeback to edge thriller with Kevin Anderson". Daily Mail. London. 21 June 2010. Retrieved 21 June 2010.
  4. ↑ "Andy Murray loses to Kevin Anderson in Rogers Cup". Retrieved 2012-09-02.
  5. ↑ "French Open 2012". Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  6. ↑ "TOMIC BEATS ANDERSON TO WIN FIRST TITLE". ATP World Tour. 12 January 2013. Retrieved 16 January 2013.
  7. ↑ Lerman, Sy (12 October 2015). "Kevin Anderson first SA tennis player in Top 10 in 18 years". Times Live. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
  8. ↑ Mostert, Herman (6 November 2015). "Rafael Nadal saves match point to down South Africa's Kevin Anderson". Times Live. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
  9. ↑ Facebook fan page
  10. ↑ http://www.dunlopsports.co.jp/en/press/file/123.pdf
  11. ↑ "ATP World Tour". ATP World Tour. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  12. ↑ Rothenberg, Ben (August 27, 2013). "A Best-Ranked Player for One Country Has Decided to Represent Another". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
  13. ↑ http://www.publicnow.com/view/42243C5026A9FC6B5D38EEB22F0DBB519A8583E6
  14. ↑ http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2016/06/pulling-back-curtain/58918/#.V5ETMlfvG9Z
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