Kevin Anderson made a return to tennis at the 2023 Newport Open after previously announcing his retirement from the sport in 2022.
Anderson, at his peak, was a very good tennis player who played in the Wimbledon final in 2018 and the US Open final the year before. During that time, he peaked at number 5 in the world.
The last few years of his career have been derailed by injuries, which is why he retired in 2022. The last time fans were able to see him on a tennis court before this week was at the Miami Open last year.
It’s been only over a year since then, and the South African player has already made a surprising comeback to the tennis courts. His return happened at the Newport Open on grass, which was the last event he won before his retirement. It was back in 2021 when he defeated Jenson Brooksby in the final.
Now, his comeback to the sport went extremely well. Facing Gabriel Diallo is never easy, as the Canadian has a very tricky game and plays decently on grass. They’re somewhat similar as they’re exceptionally tall and have a game based around the serve.
Still, as an experienced grass player, Anderson was able to use his experience to win the match very easily in two sets. Neither of the two sets was particularly close, which is somewhat surprising given the matchup and the surface.
The first set was a 6-3 win for the South African, who dominated on his serve. He dropped only two points behind his serve in the entire set while doing lots of damage on the second serve of his opponent.
In the second set, Diallo was able to find some solutions, even breaking Anderson, but his own serve let him down massively. He didn’t serve well, which gave Anderson plenty of chances to break, and he took them, breaking him three times.
The final score was 6-3, 6-2 for the returning player, and now it's up to Anderson to show how far he can go on his comeback journey.
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