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Anderson: Quarter-final 'revenge' v Djokovic?

Cape Town - South Africa’s Kevin Anderson will open his Wimbledon campaign against Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin.

Wimbledon gentlemen's singles draw

Following the draw announcement on Friday, Anderson has been seeded 20th for the year’s third Grand Slam.

Anderson is in the same half of the draw as defending champion and world No 1 Novak Djokovic, who the South African No 1 almost beat during last year’s tournament.

Anderson led Djokovic by two sets in their Round of 16 encounter last year, before the Serb rebounded to win 6-7 (6/8), 6-7 (6/8), 6-1, 6-4, 7-5.

However, before a potential rematch with Djokovic in this year's quarter-finals, Anderson may have to overcome potential stumbling blocks against No 11 seeded Belgian David Goffin and sixth seeded Milos Raonic from Canada.

Anderson would fancy his chances in his opening tie against world No 65 Istomin, against whom he holds a 2-0 head-to-head ATP World Tour record.

Anderson won their first encounter 6-4, 6-3 in Sydney in 2013 and also prevailed 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in Atlanta that same year.

Before he shifted his attentions to Wimbledon, Anderson had some unfinished business at the Nottingham Open grass-court event where he continued his semi-final battle with American Steve Johnson on Friday.

The pair returned to complete the final set of their quarter-final which was halted due to darkness on Thursday.

Top seed Anderson was leading Johnson 6-7 (6/8), 7-5, 4-3 when play was halted due to darkness after two hours. Unfortunately for Anderson, he lost the final set 6-4 to Johnson when play resumed on Friday.

It’s also been a tough year for Anderson.

His Nottingham win over Spain’s Fernando Verdasco earlier this week was just his fifth of the season as the 2.03m giant has struggled with left knee and right elbow injuries.

In October last year he reached a career-high of No 10 in the ATP Rankings. But the 30-year-old has since fallen to No 24 and was forced to retire from two matches and withdraw altogether from seven tournaments.

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