Kevin Anderson (tennis)’s biography, fact, career, awards, net worth and life story

Kevin Anderson (born 18 May 1986) is a South African tennis player.
He became the top-ranked male South African player on 10 March 2008 after making the final at the 2008 Tennis Channel Open in Las Vegas. He achieved his career-high ranking of World No. 10 on 12 October 2015. He is the first South African to be ranked in the top 10 since Wayne Ferreira was No. 10 on 5 May 1997.
On 6 February 2011, he defeated Somdev Devvarman in his hometown of Johannesburg to capture the South African Open title for his first ATP-level event title. His second ATP title came at the Delray Beach Open in 2012 when he defeated Marinko Matosevic. Anderson won his third ATP 250 championship in 2015 at the Winston-Salem Open with a victory over Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
Anderson has represented South Africa in both Davis Cup and Hopman Cup play, as well as in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
In June 2016, Kevin co-founded the tennis instructional and lifestyle website titled Realife Tennis which offers in-depth online instruction and unprecedented access to life on the professional tennis circuit.

Collegiate career

Kevin has played three seasons of college tennis in the United States at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was a three-time All-American in singles and two-time All-American in doubles. During his sophomore year (2005–06), he won the national doubles championship with his

Professional career highlights

2003–2007: Early Career

At age 17, Anderson entered his first professional tournament, a Satellite in South Africa, winning four main-draw matches in the four-week tournament to earn a world ranking of No. 1178 from his only tournament of the year. He also finished the year with a doubles ranking of No. 902.

In November, Anderson entered his third pro tournament and won the Botswana F1 to push his ranking to No. 769. He followed that up the next two weeks in South Africa, reaching the final in F1 and the semifinals in F2 to finish the year ranked No. 665 in singles from just 3 tournaments.

At age 19, Anderson continued to play at the Futures level, exclusively in the United States, reaching the semifinals of USA F21 in August. In November, he played his first Challenger event in Champaign, qualifying and beating No. 192 Jan-Michael Gambill in the first round. He finished the year ranked No. 766.

In 2005, Anderson played his first pro tournaments of the year in June, again in the United States, reaching the finals of USA F13 and F21. He returned to Champaign again in November, beating No. 107 Kevin Kim to reach his first Challenger quarterfinal. He finished the year ranked No. 517.

In doubles, he won a pair of USA Futures back to back in June and finished the year ranked No. 530.

In 2006, Anderson again waited until June to play his first tournaments. He repeated as a finalist in USA F12, and then won USA F13 before qualifying two weeks later in the Winnetka Challenger and reaching the final to push his ranking to No. 310. He recorded his first win over a top-100 opponent in the qualifying for the ATP tournament in New Haven, beating No. 88 Chris Guccione, before losing in the main draw to No. 41 Arnaud Clément.

Anderson’s most interesting result in 2007 was in September in the Challenger in New Orleans. He needed to qualify to make the main draw in both singles and doubles, and won all 13 matches that week to take the singles and doubles titles, beating four top-200 singles players and the top three seeded doubles teams.

His Challenger success in New Orleans helped him to career-high rankings at the end of 2007 of No. 221 in singles and No. 398 in doubles.

2008: 1st Grand Slam Entry

Anderson began 2008 with a bit of success, reaching the quarters of the Challenger in New Caledonia before qualifying in his first Grand Slam attempt in Australia. He lost in the main draw first round to No. 84 Alejandro Falla in 5 sets, but his efforts got his ranking to a career high of No. 190.

At the 2008 Tennis Channel Open in Las Vegas, as a qualifier, he managed to defeat sixth seed Michaël Llodra in straight sets, 6–2, 7–6. In the second round he beat giant John Isner 7–6, 7–5. He beat Evgeny Korolev in his first ever ATP quarter-final 6–2, 6–0. In the semi-finals he won in straight sets against Robby Ginepri to reach his first ever ATP tour final. In the final, he fell to Sam Querrey in 3 sets.

In the second round of the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, he beat Novak Djokovic for his first win against a top-10 player.

At Wimbledon, Anderson and partner Robert Lindstedt of Sweden reached the quarterfinals before losing to the eventual tournament champions, Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjić.

Anderson also represented South Africa in the Beijing Olympics, defeating Komlavi Loglo before losing to Nicolas Kiefer 4–6, 7–6, 4–6 in the singles tournament and losing (with his partner Jeff Coetzee) to Nicolás Almagro and David Ferrer of Spain 6–3, 3–6, 4–6.

2009: Victory at Sanremo Challenger

After a slow start to the year, he won the Sanremo Challenger in May, beating Blaž Kavčič in the final in three sets.

At the Aegon Championships (Queen’s Club, London), Anderson won three matches to qualify, and then defeated no. 57 Fabio Fognini in the first round of the main draw, before losing to no. 46 Sam Querrey in the second round.

2010: 3rd Round at US Open and Canadian Masters

At Wimbledon, he was narrowly defeated by seventh seed Nikolay Davydenko after winning the first two sets.

Anderson advanced to the semifinals of the 2010 Atlanta Tennis Championships in July, upsetting fifth seed Janko Tipsarević in the first round.

He qualified and reached the third round of the Rogers Cup in Toronto, beating Leonardo Mayer and Sam Querrey before losing to no. 1 Rafael Nadal.

He then won his first Grand Slam match at the US Open over Somdev Devvarman in straight sets and backed it up with a five-set win over 26th seed Thomaz Bellucci.

2011: 1st Career ATP Title

He began the 2011 season by advancing to the semifinals of the Brisbane International Tournament, before losing to Andy Roddick in three sets. He then went on to lose in the first round of the Australian Open to Blaž Kavčič.

At the SA Open, (Anderson’s home event), he claimed his maiden ATP Tour title, by beating Indian Somdev Devvarman, rising 19 positions in the ATP rankings to a career high of No. 40.

He reached a career-high of world no. 33 after making the quarterfinals of the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open. At the Atlanta Tennis Championships, Anderson reached the quarterfinals as the second seed, defeating Michael Russell, before losing in straight sets to Gilles Müller. Next at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, Anderson defeated Chris Guccione in the second round, before being defeated by Victor Troicki in the third round.

At the 2011 Rogers Cup, he defeated Pablo Andújar in straight sets before shocking an out-of-sorts Andy Murray in the second round with an easy victory. He was defeated in the third round by Stanislas Wawrinka in a tight three set contest.

2012: 2nd ATP Title

Anderson opened 2012 with a third-round loss at the 2012 Australian Open. He followed it up with a win in Delray Beach, defeating qualifier Marinko Matosevic in the final.

At the French Open, he reached a career-best third round, where he was defeated by seventh seed Tomáš Berdych in five sets.

2013: 1st Grand Slam 4th-Round Appearance

Anderson started the year at the Sydney International, where he reached the final, but lost to Australian Bernard Tomic in three sets.

At the 2013 Australian Open, he defeated Fernando Verdasco in the third round, but lost to Tomáš Berdych in the fourth round. This was his career best in any Grand Slam event.

He played at Indian Wells, where he knocked out fourth seed David Ferrer. He reached the quarterfinals there before losing to Tomáš Berdych. He reached the fourth round of the French Open, before falling to Ferrer in straight sets. At Wimbledon, he lost in the third round to Berdych.

He reached the final in Atlanta in July, but lost his third final of the year in three tiebreaks to John Isner.

2014: 4 wins against top-5 Opponents

Anderson started the year by reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open, before being knocked out in straight sets by Tomáš Berdych. He then reached the final at Delray Beach, before losing to Marin Čilić in two tiebreaks. At the Mexican Open held in Acapulco, he again reached the final, losing to Grigor Dimitrov in three sets, with tiebreaks in the first and third sets.

In the Indian Wells Masters, Anderson reached the quarterfinals, after beating third seed Stan Wawrinka in a hard-fought upset in three sets. He lost to Roger Federer in straight sets. At the 2014 Madrid Open, he beat Radek Štěpánek, before losing to Tomáš Berdych. He repeated his success of 2013 by again reaching the fourth round in the French Open, before losing to fifth seed David Ferrer in four sets.

He then reached the quarterfinals of the AEGON Championships held at the Queen’s Club, London, before losing to Radek Štěpánek. At the Wimbledon Championships he defeated Fabio Fognini to reach the fourth round, where he lost to Andy Murray.

Anderson made it to the quarterfinals of the Masters 1000 event in Toronto after defeating Fognini and Stanislas Wawrinka. At the Cincinnati Masters, he had a disappointing first-round, straight-set exit at the hands of John Isner.

He made it to the third round of the US Open, where he lost to eventual champion Marin Čilić. At the Paris Masters he again defeated Wawrinka to reach the quarterfinals, after which Tomas Berdych beat him. The South African ended the year no. 16 in the ATP year-end rankings.

2015: Top-10 debut

Anderson made the final in Memphis, losing to Kei Nishikori, but he made early exits in Estoril and Madrid. He then had a good run at Queen’s Club, making the final before being defeated by Andy Murray in straight sets. He again reached the fourth round at Wimbledon, where he led eventual champion Novak Djokovic two sets to love, taking both sets through tiebreakers. However, he was unable to sustain his form for the next three sets and eventually lost the match in five sets. Anderson became the champion of the ATP 250 in Winston-Salem, earning his third career singles title. Anderson’s big moment came in the US Open, where he defeated Andy Murray, advancing to his first quarterfinals in a Grand Slam after seven attempts. He won the first two sets, then lost the third set via tiebreaker, but after a hard-fought fourth set, Anderson pulled away, winning the tiebreaker 7–0 and captured the victory. He would next face Stan Wawrinka, whom he had beaten the last four times they played, including once that year. This was their eighth match overall, but the first at Grand Slam level. Wawrinka levelled the head to head at 4–4, beating Anderson in straight sets, including a bagel in the third.

Following a great US Open, Kevin traveled to Asia for the Japan Open, where he lost in the round of 32 to Gilles Müller. Despite this loss, he reached a career-high ranking of No. 10 on 12 October, the first South African tennis player in the top 10 in 18 years. He then traveled to Shanghai for the Shanghai Masters (tennis), where he was defeated in the quarterfinals by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. This was followed by the Vienna Open, where he lost to Steve Johnson in the quarterfinals. Traveling to Basel next, he was defeated by yet another American in Donald Young in the Round of 16. He reached the third round in the 2015 BNP Paribas Masters, but failed to capitalise on a match point against Rafael Nadal.

2016: Injury struggles

Anderson started his season at Auckland as the fourth seed. He defeated Robin Haase in the second round, but lost to Jack Sock in the quarterfinals, despite winning the first set. Anderson was then scheduled to play at the Chennai Open, but withdrew due to a left knee injury. Anderson exited the Australian Open early in the first round and was advised to take some time off to sort out problems with his shoulder. He took the break and also had minor surgery on his ankle while he was out. Anderson then returned to Delray Beach as the number 1 seed. He lost the first set of his match against Austin Krajicek in the first round and then retired before the second set.

Anderson did not play on tour until May at the Madrid Open. He lost in the first round against 13th seed Gaël Monfils. Anderson then played in Rome as the 16th seed. Anderson won his first-round match against Feliciano López, but lost in the second round to Juan Mónaco, despite winning the first set. Anderson then competed in Nice as the third seed. He defeated qualifier Diego Schwartzman, before losing to fifth seed João Sousa. Anderson then played at the French Open as the 18th seed, where he lost in the first round to Stéphane Robert. Anderson started his grass season at Queen’s Club. Since he entered late, he had to go through qualifying. Anderson defeated Edward Corrie and Jiří Veselý, both in straight sets, to enter the main draw. He then lost to Bernard Tomic in the first round of the main draw. Anderson then played at Nottingham as the top seed. He defeated Ivan Dodig and 14th seed Fernando Verdasco to reach the quarterfinals, where he lost to sixth seed and eventual champion Steve Johnson. Anderson then played at Wimbledon as the 20th seed. He lost in the first round to Denis Istomin, despite winning the first two sets.

Anderson played at the Citi Open as the ninth seed. He lost in the second round to Malek Jaziri, despite winning the first set. Anderson then played at the Rogers Cup. He won his first-round match against Viktor Troicki. He then defeated sixth seed Dominic Thiem because Thiem had to retire. He then reached the quarterfinals after he defeated 12th seed Bernard Tomic for the first time. Anderson, however, lost to Stan Wawrinka in straight sets. The US Open saw his best performance in a Grand Slam for the year, defeating both Yoshihito Nishioka and Vasek Pospisil in straight sets, before bowing out to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the third round, also in straight sets.

Equipment

Anderson currently wears Lotto apparel and uses Srixon (a division of SRI Sports Limited) rackets. His racket of choice is the Srixon 2.0 tour.

Personal

Anderson started playing tennis at age 6 and was competitive in 800-meter races at school.

Anderson married his college girlfriend, golfer Kelsey O’Neal, in 2011, and they have bought a home in Delray Beach, Florida. He is a permanent resident of the United States.

Kevin, his wife Kelsey and former Coach GD Jones launched a tennis instructional website in June 2016 entitled Realife Tennis. The site offers practice and lifestyle tips from traveling the world playing tennis, as well as courses for improving one’s tennis game.

ATP career finals

Singles: 11 (3 titles, 8 runners-up)

Doubles: 4 (1 title, 3 runners-up)

Singles performance timeline

Current till 2016 US Open (tennis).

Men’s doubles performance timeline

Record against top-10 players

Anderson’s match record against those who have been ranked in the top 10, with those who have been No. 1 in boldface

*As of October 15, 2015.

Wins over top 10 players

Ranking