/ 4 February 2009

Local hope out of SA Open

On a rain-interrupted programme at the SA Open on Tuesday, SA's Kevin Anderson went down 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 in the first round against Ivo Minar.

When top South African tennis player Kevin Anderson was drawn to face the redoubtable Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in a projected quarterfinal at the South African Open at Montecasino, he philosophised there was ”a long way to go” before he needed to worry about the top seed.

Prophetic words indeed. On a rain-interrupted programme at Montecasino on Tuesday afternoon, South Africa’s big hope in the rejuvenated national event went down 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 in the first round against the Czech Republic’s 93rd-ranked Ivo Minar.

It was a shattering blow for South Africa’s hopes of securing a measure of glory in the first national tournament to be delegated a place on the ATP’s main circuit in 14 years — off-setting to a considerable degree the impressive wins of South African wildcards Rik De Voest and Raven Klaasen on the opening day.

At six-foot, Minar appeared misleadingly dwarfed by the 6ft 7in Anderson on court — and equally misleading was the expectation that the powerful-hitting South African, whose serves approached 220km/h, would prove the more accomplished player in familiar high altitude conditions that suited his game.

Minar, a cagey, cunning player with a Scrooge-like obsession to avoid unforced errors, neutralised Anderson’s cannonball serve to a great degree by standing as far as 4m behind the baseline while receiving.

And, at times, he was within touching distance of the linesmen at the back of the court.

For all this, Anderson broke service first in the opening set, but allowed Minar back into the game with a sloppy succession of ground strokes and indecisive volleys.

Indeed the South African was guilty of 30 unforced errors in all against Minar’s 10 and faltered again in the tiebreaker with a costly double fault.

And when Anderson dropped service for a second time at the start of the second set and trailed 0-2, the writing was already on the wall for the increasingly more worried and fallible fallen giant.

Minar, it must be said, played a masterly tactical game and fed on his opponent’s weaknesses, jamming him with strokes down the centre of the court and precipitating a stream of off-key forehands.

It was suggested that Anderson might have done better by storming the net more often, but the truth of the matter is that his volleying is just not good enough to employ such tactics.

For all this, South Africa’s number one was handed a glimmer of hope of staging a recovery at 2-3 down in the second set, but leading 40-15 on Minar’s serve.

However, the Czech at this point again demonstrated that he possessed a misleadingly effective serve and came up with the right shots at the right time.

”It’s always a worry when you have to play a big hitter like Kevin on his home courts,” said Minar afterwards, ”but I did what I know best and it paid dividends.”

And to add to Anderson’s woes, he is out of the tournament altogether, having lost in the doubles with Tsonga as his partner.

De Voest, in contrast, remains in both the singles and doubles draws and is now South Africa’s main hope of earning a quarterfinal berth in the singles.

And on a day programme revised by the rain, Spain’s second-seeded David Ferrer avenged a recent defeat against Israel’s Dudi Sela, by romping home 6-2 6-0 and winning a stunning 12 games in a row. — Sapa