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Losers can be winners!
Top South African tennis player Kevin Anderson proved as much this week when he improved his ATP world ranking from 17th to 16th immediately after jarring losses against lesser opponents in his opening games of his last two tournaments.
Seeking to adjust to European clay court conditions before the prestigious French Open grand slam event at Roland Garros later this month, the 28-year-old, big-serving Anderson went down 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 in his first match in Portugal's Millennium Open against the 28th-ranked Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, before losing 6-4, 6-3 to 57th-ranked Simone Bolelli in the first round of the Madrid Open.
The ATP explained the anomaly of Anderson's rise in the rankings despite a drop in his overall ranking points, which are accumulated over the previous 12 month period, to the fact that other players had shed more points than the 6-foot-8 South African.
"This gave Kevin the opportunity to move up in the rankings despite his losses," added the ATP, "although in the long-term it will obviously be detrimental to improving his position."
Anderson has a career-best world ranking of 15th, with his coach, former Davis Cup player, Neville Godwin, having stated at the start of the year that the objective would now be to further improve his charge to become the first South African since Wayne Ferreira to break into the world's Top 10.
However, Anderson now faces a difficult task in holding onto his present ranking, particularly as he will be defending substantial points in the forthcoming French Open and Wimbledon in which he progressed to the last 16 on both occasions.
And early losses in these two prestige events will mean a drop in the rankings - unlike the bizarre events of the past weeks when losing resulted in winning.
