Beaten Anderson misses out on grasscourt practice

It was top South African player and world No 8 Kevin Anderson’s first grasscourt tournament of the year this week and ideally positioned as valuable preparation for Wimbledon.

Instead, the third seeded Anderson’s planning was rudely interrupted in a 7-6, 4-6, 7-6 first-round defeat against Leonardo Mayer, with the fact that the 38th world-ranked Argentinian baseline strokemaker is labelled a clay court specialist, adding insult to injury in a manner of speaking.

What must certainly have also made it more frustrating for Anderson is that his early exit materialised through the loss of two tiebreaker sets – a mode in which the South African’s most potent weapon of power serving is supposed to provide him with a telling advantage.

Anderson (left) last year reached the last-16 at Wimbledon and results this year after progressing to the US Open final at Flushing Meadows provided expectations in his camp that he might go further at Wimbledon this time around and improve on his world ranking at the same time.

Being deprived of grasscourt match practice, in the circumstances, can only be disconcerting, although surprises of one sort or another have not been isolated in the warm-up Wimbledon tournaments, with Andy Murray another first-round victim at Queen’s against the irresistible, if enigmatic Nick Kyrgios.

And, while the 31-year-old Mayer is better known for his clay court exploits, he has shown in the past that he can be a handful on grass conditions as well – as the tall South African learnt to his cost in an intriguing battle that lasted almost 2 hours 30 minutes.