Anderson falls at first hurdle in Vienna

Cape Town - South African tennis star Kevin Anderson was beaten in the first round of the Vienna Open on Tuesday.

World No 17 Anderson suffered a 6-4, 6-4 defeat to Guillermo García-López of Spain in Austria.

Anderson, who became the first South African US Open finalist this year, had gone into the tournament as the seventh seed was looking to make a late surge.

This performance in Vienna followed his run to the quarter-finals of last week's Stockholm Open where he was defeated 7-6 (7/1), 7-6 (7/1) by Spain's Fernando Verdasco.

Anderson, along with South African doubles specialist Raven Klaasen has been nominated for an 2017 ATP World Tour award.

The candidates for the awards are the Top 25 players in the ATP Race To London and Top 15 teams in the ATP Doubles Race To London - as of September 11, 2017.

The public can vote for the nominated players via the ATP website.

Voting closes on Tuesday, November 7.

Results from the ATP tournament in Vienna on Tuesday (x denotes seeding):

1st rd

Kyle Edmund (GBR) bt David Ferrer (ESP) 6-2, 7-6 (7/5)

Dennis Novak (AUT) bt Thomas Fabbiano (ITA) 7-6 (7/4), 7-5

Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP) bt Kevin Anderson (RSA x7) 6-4, 6-4

Lucas Pouille (FRA) bt Sebastian Ofner (AUT) 6-3, 6-4