Publications
Partners
Cape Town - South Africa’s top tennis player Kevin Anderson will open his French Open campaign against Italian journeyman Paolo Lorenzi on Sunday.
The 36-year-old Lorenzi has been a professional on the ATP World Tour since 2003 and boasts one career title - the 2016 Austrian Open in Kitzbühel.
Anderson, who has won won four ATP titles, will fancy his chances against Lorenzi, having won all four of their prior meetings on the ATP World Tour.
The big-serving South African won their most recent meeting in four sets at last year’s US Open, en route to his maiden Grand Slam final.
Lorenzi, however, is more adept on the clay but Anderson also defeated the 74th-ranked Italian in straight sets when they met on that surface in Geneva last year.
The pair's other meetings were at the 2013 Australian Open and the 2012 Atlanta Open, with both those tournaments played on hard courts.
Anderson, who is ranked sixth at the French Open, was drawn in the same half as world No 1 Rafael Nadal.
Anderson and Nadal are scheduled to meet in the quarter-finals, with the other seeded players in the South African's quarter being Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman (11th seed), Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber (22nd seed) and Spain’s Feliciano Lopez (28th seed).
Anderson’s best performance at the French Open is reaching the fourth round on three occasions - in 2013, 2014 and 2017.
Nadal, meanwhile, is the heavy favourite to win his 11th Roland Garros crown.
