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Cape Town - South Africa’s Kevin Anderson faces a tough US Open third round encounter against ninth-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Friday.
Anderson has started the year’s final Grand Slam well, notching straight-set victories in his first two matches at Flushing Meadows in New York.
He beat Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 in his opening match on Monday, before ousting Canada’s Vasek Pospisil 7-6 (7/3), 6-4, 6-4 on Wednesday.
But the third round encounter promises to be a much sterner test for the South African No 1 against a player he has never beaten on the ATP World Tour.
Tsonga boasts a 2-0 head-to-head win-record against Anderson, but the South African will take heart from the fact that the two losses against the Frenchman were tightly-contested.
Tsonga won 7-6 (16/14), 7-6 (7/5) at the Masters 1000 clay event in Rome in 2014, before prevailing 7-6 (8/6), 5-7, 6-4 at the Masters 1000 hardcourt event in Shanghai last year.
A win for Anderson could see him face seventh seed and 2014 US Open champion, Marin Cilic, in the round of 16.
The Croat is favoured to beat 26th-ranked American Jack Sock in their third round tussle.
The winner from this side of the draw will likely face world No 1 Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals.
