Cape Town - South Africa’s Kevin Anderson continues his ATP Finals campaign against Japan’s Kei Nishikori in London on Tuesday.
The world No 6, who is playing for the first time at the prestigious year-end event, opened his campaign in impressive fashion on Sunday when he beat Austria’s Dominic Thiem 6-3, 7-6 (12/10).
Nishikori, the world No 9, leads the head-to-head rivalry 5-3 against Anderson and beat the tall South African 6-4, 6-4 at the Paris Masters earlier this month.
However, just days earlier Anderson had beaten the Japanese star 6-3, 7-6 (7/3) in the Vienna Open final to claim his fifth career title.
Anderson also beat Nishikori 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (7/4) en route to the title at the New York Open earlier this year.
Anderson will face Switzerland’s Roger Federer in his final group match on Thursday and will fancy his chances against the 20-time Grand Slam champion, having beaten him at Wimbledon earlier this year.
Federer struggled in his opening match on Sunday, going down 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to Nishikori.
The other group features Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, America’s John Isner, Germany's Alexander Zverev and Croatia's Marin Cilic.
The top two players in each group advance to the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s doubles participant Raven Klaasen and his New Zealand partner Michael Venus will tackle Croatia’s Nikola Mektic and Austria’s Alexander Peya on Tuesday.
The SA-Kiwi duo lost their opening match 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 10-5 to Britain’s Jamie Murray and Brazil’s Bruno Soares on Sunday.