South African tennis star, Kevin Anderson, reached the third round of the Cincinnati Masters with a straight sets victory over Frenchman Jeremy Chardy on Wednesday.
The 6th seeded Anderson won 7-6 (8/6), 6-2 to set up a duel with 11th seeded Belgian David Goffin. Goffin defeated Frenchman Benoit Paire 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.
Goffin and Anderson have never before faced each other on the ATP World Tour but did once play in an ATP Challenger event in Todi, Italy way back in 2009. The Belgian won that match 7-5, 6-3 on outdoor clay.
Anderson will be eager to progress further in Cincinnati, especially after his disappointment last weekend at the Toronto Masters where he squandered a match point in a semi-final loss to Stefanos Tsitsipas from Greece.
Anderson missed out on a match point off his own serve as Tsitsipas slammed over a backhand cross-court winner. The winner saved all four break points he faced while breaking Anderson once in the afternoon struggle.
“It’s obviously incredibly difficult losing a match like where it’s so close at such a big stage of the tournament.” “I did what I could. I thought he played some really good tennis, especially when it was of utmost importance. “On the one match point that I had, he came up with an unbelievable backhand cross-court winner – it was a very impressive effort from him.
