Kevin Anderson interested in playing next season’s Heineken Open – Tennis News
World number 38, Kevin Anderson, is expected to participate in next year’s Heineken Open in Auckland. Heineken Open is an ATP World Tour 250 which will be held on the hard courts in Auckland, New Zealand from January 8 to 15.
Many top players have already confirmed that they would not be taking part in the Heineken Open, as they have already signed for other events to be held at the same time.
Top four players, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal, have never participated here and there was no chance of their inclusion in the next edition.
New tournament director, Karl Budge, was hopeful that he would be able to bring French number one, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, to the event. However, the current world number six has confirmed that he would play the Sydney International
in the same week. Two other top 20 players, Milos Raonic and Marin Cilic, are unavailable. Czech Republic’s Tomas Berdych and Kei Nishikori have also excused taking part here.
If Anderson joins the event, it would be his third straight participation. The South African star made his debut here in 2011 and participated again this year.
The 6ft 8in tall does not have a good record at this ATP World Tour 250 event. The Johannesburg, South Africa resident was ousted by Romania’s Victor Hanescu in three sets 6-7(7), 7-6(3), 4-6 in the opening round in 2011.
He was ranked 32nd in the world, when he took part at this tournament last year but he was stunned by the then 87th ranked, Adrian Mannarino of France, in straight sets 3-6, 3-6 again in the first round.
Anderson has a 25-22 win/loss record in this season, with a title winning performance at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships. The South African number one stunned Andy Roddick and John Isner of USA in quarter-final
and semi-final respectively.
The right-hander also put up a good show at the AEGON Championships in Queen’s Club, where he advanced to the quarter-finals, after surprising the then world number 17, Feliciano Lopez of Spain, in straight sets 7-6(10), 7-6(7)
in the third round.
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