Kevin Anderson through to his first-ever Wimbledon quarters

After winning the first two sets against French player Gaël Monfils (31), South Africa’s number one tennis player Kevin Anderson (32) raised his game in the fourth set to make it to his first-ever Wimbledon quarterfinal.

He has made the fourth round four times, always falling in the round of 16. Monday was also his first victory against Monfils in six attempts, despite Anderson being ranked eighth in the world and Monfils 44. It was their first encounter on grass. He won 7-6, 7-6, 5-7, 7-6.

However, today the big man got the Wimbledon monkey off his back by relying primarily on his big serve as the first two sets were decided by tiebreaks.

The fourth set also went Anderson’s way in a close tiebreak, which he won off a second serve and a rally, which ended with a deft volley at the net that had the crowd whooping as the ball just stayed in near the baseline.

He becomes the first South African to go through to the quarters in 24 years. Kevin Curren made the final against 17-year-old champion Boris Becker in 1985.

Anderson last year made the final at the US Open, losing to Rafael Nadal.

He said after the match that “being in the quarterfinals is special”.

Anderson was surprised to hear his next opponent will be eight-time champion Roger Federer, who he said would be “tough” to beat.

* Another South African player, Raven Klaasen, also booked his place in the last eight in the doubles division at the grass court Grand Slam.

Klaasen joined regular playing partner Michael Venus of New Zealand in securing a hard-fought 6-3 7-6 6-7 6-7 6-3 victory over Leonardo Mayer of Argentina and Joao Sousa of Portugal in their third-round clash.

They set up a fixture against British player Jamie Murray and Brazilian Bruno Soares, the No 5 seeds, in the quarterfinals.