A convincing victory left Fritz Wolmarans as the last South African standing in the men’s singles qualifying competition at the US Open tennis tournament in New York on Tuesday.
Wolmarans, ranked 214th in the world, eliminated 18-year-old Bjorn Fratangelo of the US — rated outside the top 700 by the ATP — with a straight sets 6-2, 6-2 win.
South Africa’s No. 4 was set to face Frank Dancevic of Canada, ranked 31 places above him, in the second-round qualifying late on Wednesday.
South Africa’s top three ranked players, however, all took a knock on the eve of the final Grand Slam tournament of the year at Flushing Meadows.
Rik de Voest, who went down 4-6, 4-6 to Rhyne Williams, and Izak van der Merwe, defeated 2-6, 1-6 by Tsung-Hua Yang of Taiwan, were both eliminated in the first round of qualifying.
No. 1 Kevin Anderson, meanwhile, was forced to withdraw from the Winston-Salem Open in North Carolina.
“Pretty bad food poisoning last night. Feel like I’m recovering from a massive hangover,” Anderson, who was seeded sixth at the ATP 250 event, posted on Twitter on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, South Africa’s women’s No. 1 Chanelle Scheepers narrowly went down to Angelique Kerber of Germany in the opening round of the Texas Open in Dallas, a WTA International series event.
Scheepers won the first set but Kerber fought back to secure a 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 victory. — Sapa