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Johannesburg - Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No 5 Kevin Anderson will step on to the court at the Toronto Masters, which starts on Monday, after skipping a few tournaments following his memorable Wimbledon final loss.
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South Africa’s highest-ranked tennis player has won numerous titles on hard courts in his career, including the New York Open earlier this year.
He beat Sam Querrey from the US to clinch this event, which replaced the Memphis Open in the ATP World Tour 250 Series.
Last year, the Johannesburg-born player fell one match from winning the City Open, losing to world number three Alexander Zverev in the final.
A few weeks later, he made history by becoming the first South African to reach a Grand Slam final since 1984. He succumbed to world No 1 Rafael Nadal at the US Open final.
Kevin Curren was the last player from Mzansi to achieve this feat - he lost in the 1984 Australian Open final. Curren had adopted US citizenship by the time he succumbed to Boris Becker in the Wimbledon final the following year.
A loss at the Wimbledon final last month to Serb Novak Djokovic meant another great run for the 2.03m giant Anderson.
He was also the first player from our shores to reach the Wimbledon final in 97 years.
After winning after more than six hours of play in a semi-final match against American John Isner and in the quarter-final thriller against legendary Swiss Roger Federer, he took a much-needed rest.
Last week, he was supposed to return to the sport at the City Open, but opted to stay away and recover for one more week.
It would have been interesting to see if he would have replicated what he did last season in the same tournament.
The tall player will be fighting to stay in the top five behind Argentine Juan Martín del Potro, who led by 740 points before tomorrow’s new rankings release.
Meanwhile, for the first time in South African tennis history, a Tennis SA (TSA) beach tennis team travelled to Russia on Friday to represent the country at the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Beach Tennis World Team Championships.
The tournament runs from Tuesday to Friday at the National Tennis Centre in Moscow.
The team was awarded a wild-card entry by the ITF based on the progress they have made in the past 12 months. TSA has been promoting beach tennis in the country since the local launch of the sport in March.
