Anderson and Klaasen progress at Wimbledon
The small South African contingent was still going strong at Wimbledon on Friday, with both players keeping their hopes alive in the main draw of the Grand Slam tournament.
South Africa’s Kevin Anderson is safely through to the second round at Wimbledon. Photo: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images.
Big-hitting singles star Kevin Anderson continued his impressive comeback at the highest level by sweeping aside Belgian qualifier Ruben Bemelmans with a commanding 7-6 6-4 7-6 victory in his third-round clash.
He was set to face either No 12 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France or No 24 seed Sam Querrey of the United States in round four.
Earlier, putting up a tremendous fight after losing their early advantage, Raven Klaasen and American doubles partner Rajeev Ram held their nerve to clinch a narrow second-round win.
In a match that went down to the wire against the Indian pairing of Purav Raja and Divij Sharan, Klaasen and Ram got off to a good start by winning the first two sets.
Their opponents fought back, however, and clinched the next two sets, before Klaasen and Ram grabbed a hard-fought decider to earn a 6-3 6-4 4-6 6-7(6) 10-8 win.
They were set to face Hans Podlipnik-Castillo of Chile and Andrei Vasilevski of Belarus in round three.
