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Cape Town - Sport24's Dave Marshall caught up with South Africa's No 1 Kevin Anderson following his third round Wimbledon win over Argentina's Leonardo Mayer.
Dave Marshall- Second year in a row you have made the fourth round here. Is this your best form at Wimbledon?
Kevin Anderson – Yeah I think so. I think a lot of the parts of my game that I have been working on consistently during the year are coming into play. Trying to be more aggressive at times is a big positive on the grass. I think today was probably the best match I’ve played at the Championship so far. That’s great, I definitely feel like I’m heading in the right direction.
DM - You held out in that second set tie breaker after 4 set points went missing and you managed to steady?
KA – Yeah I was kind of thinking to the previous round match when I was in the other position after saving some set points. I played a great tie breaker to get to 6-2, playing the tennis I wanted to be playing, maybe not as good from that point on, so that is something to keep in the back of my mind as a learning experience. Obviously a good position to be in, winning the match and still learning from it. It was very important at that stage to get the 2 sets to love lead.
DM -When you won the tiebreaker you let out a roar, was that joy or a bit of frustration or a mixture of both?
KA – Yeah I think probably a mixture of both. Obviously very important going 2 sets to love up. It would have been tough splitting sets after giving myself a great opportunity. I would have had to reset.
DM - Kevin, you’ve got Novak next, you haven’t beaten him in 7 years. It’s going to be a tough one, but I guess you’ve not got a lot to lose?
KA – Obviously it’s going to be a tough match playing against the best player in the world. He’s being having very consistent results since Paris last year, he’s taken it up a level only losing to Stan I think in some of the bigger tournaments we have. I honestly haven’t given it much thought right now. We have a couple of days off. My first goal was to make it through to the second week and that feels great. I’ve had 3 matches and it is always a special feeling experiencing the Sunday of the second week with no matches and still being in the tournament. Obviously I’ve got a big match but I’m just going to be focusing on the last week and on Sunday start thinking about Monday’s match.
DM - After you won you had a big smile on your face was that because you had made it to the second week or played so well or a bit of both?
KA – Yeah I definitely think that sums it up well. Getting through some matches, there were some tricky moments in there and getting that first step completed. I’ve been in the round of 16 a couple of times before and I obviously don’t have the easiest match coming up. I think it really important at the Slams and the top level to enjoy every match. It definitely felt good getting that match today.
