South African two-time Grand Slam finalist Kevin Anderson rose from No. 111 to No. 86 after reaching the Erste Bank Open semi-finals in Vienna this week, scoring his first Top 10 win in almost two years en route.
Though his week in Vienna may not have had a fairytale ending, Kevin Anderson’s run to the semifinals of the ATP 500 event this past week propelled him from No. 111 to No. 86 on Monday’s new ATP rankings, the former No. 5’s first time inside the Top 100 since the first week of the year.
Anderson has struggled with right elbow and knee injuries over the last few years, undergoing two surgeries on the knee and after his points from winning a title in Pune, India on January 5, 2019 fell off on January 6, 2020, he fell from No. 91 to No. 147, his first time outside the Top 100 since 2010.
But he brought out some of his best tennis to reach the final four in Vienna, taking out among others, Daniil Medvedev (ranked no.6th) in the quarterfinals, 6-4, 7-6 (5), his first top 10 win since beating both Dominic Thiem and Kei Nishikori in the round-robin stage of the ATP Finals in November 2018.
“Right from the beginning I felt very good about my game, and obviously I knew it was going to be tough. I couldn’t be happier to be through to the semifinals,” he said after beating the Russian.
“I want to take a moment to appreciate the work that has gone in for me to play a match like this.”
Anderson ended up retiring against Andrey Rublev in the semifinals due to an upper right leg injury.