Kev keeps SA flag flying

South Africa's solitary hope at Wimbledon, Kevin Anderson, slew his demons yesterday when he beat Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin 7-6 1-6 6-3 6-4 to advance to the third round of the grasscourt Grand Slam.

This equals his best progress at the tournament to date.

The world No 18 has in the past come unstuck against mercurial French opposition, losing to French opponents three times already this year. But he had too much gas in the tank for Vasselin.

Anderson started with two aces in the first game, just to let Vasselin know about his serving prowess but both players held their services as a tight first set headed inexorably towards a tiebreaker.

Anderson's service at times reached speeds of 218km/h in the 28C heat but the Frenchman managed to deal with many of them. However, he missed out on a crucial point in the ninth game of the first set when he tried to put Anderson under pressure at 4-4 and blew a backhand volley.

The players traded breaks and blows, until Anderson made a crucial break in the eighth game of the third set, breaking Roger-Vasselin, and then holding serve to take a vital two sets-to-one lead.

He then broke Vasselin in the third game of the fourth set to seize the initiative and then the match.

In possibly the biggest upset so far Spanish seventh seed David Ferrer failed to reach an 18th consecutive third round at a Grand Slam when he was beaten by Russian qualifier Andrey Kuznetsov.

The 32-year-old Ferrer last failed to reach the third round at a major at the 2010 Australian Open.

But Kuznetsov, the world number 118, claimed a famous 6-7 (5), 6-0, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win to reach the third round at Wimbledon for the first time. The win was Kuznetsov's first against a top-10 player.

Andy Murray made no apologies for blasting Slovenian Blaz Rola out of the second round yesterday, saying he had let leads slip too often and needed to be ruthless.

For former college champion Rola, the 6-1 6-1 6-0 defeat was a painful lesson in what it takes to be a grand slam winner.

"You try to finish matches as quickly as you can if you have momentum and you're playing well," said the third seed.

Additional reporting: Reuters, AFP