Kevin Anderson advances into the quarterfinals of the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open
Unseeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa moved past American John Isner in a two set thriller on Tuesday. He cemented a 6-3, 7-6(4) win over the American to move it into the quarter finals at the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open.
Anderson took one hour and forty two minutes to outplay his higher ranked opponent from the tournament.
His best performance for the event came in 2008 when he reached to the third round defeating Agustin Caller and Novak Djokovic in the first two rounds, before losing to Igor Andreev of Russia in three trilling sets
4-6, 7-6(4), 4-(6) in the fourth round.
World number forty had defeated Isner in their last meeting at Las Vegas, U.S.A in 2008 with a 7-6(2), 7-5 score line. Given their second meeting on courts, Anderson has now extended his lead in the head-to-head by
2-3.
Longing for a spot in the semifinals, Isner started off great. The hard hitting American fired in three aces, landed 47 per cent of his first serves and won a whopping 89 percent on it. Anderson on the other hand struck
only a single ace, double faulted one time and converted 82 per cent points on his 61 per cent first serves. As luck would have it, Anderson saved 100 per cent of his break point opportunities as opposed to Isner’s zero per cent. Anderson broke his upper ranked
opponent in the second and fifth game and grabbed the opening set with a 6-3 win.
In the second set, Anderson put his tennis skills to good use and fired in 5 aces, committed one double fault and landed 74 per cent of the first serves. Whereas the American fired in 9 aces and landed 67 per cent of
his first serves. Anderson pulled in 92 per cent gain on his first serves which was a lot higher than Isner’s acceptable 75 per cent. Both the players didn’t face a single break point opportunity pushing the set into a tiebreaker. Hitting past the American
giant, Anderson was able to clinch the tiebreaker 7-4.
Anderson has now extended his year-to-date win loss record to 11-6. He will next meet world number two Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the quarterfinals of the tournament. Anderson leads their head-to-head by 1-0
Anderson made his last appearance at the 2011 BNP Paribas Open, where he was ousted by the American Michael Russell in three sets in the first round of the tournament.
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