The 2017 US Open finalist, Kevin Anderson lost already in the second round of the 2023 qualifying tournament to Tomas Machac.
Making a comeback is never easy, and that's something that the tall South African was certainly aware of when he announced his return to tennis in July this year. His first ATP tournament back was great as Anderson managed to get a couple of wins and reach the quarterfinals of the 2023 Newport Open.
However, after that, he lost in the first round of the 2023 Citi Open in Washington after receiving a wild card, and after skipping the Canadian Open and the Cincinnati Masters, the qualifying for the 2023 US Open followed for Anderson.
In 2017, Anderson played the final at Flushing Meadows, and even though his ambitions certainly weren't that big this year, he surely wanted to at least qualify for the main draw, something that seemed to be doable after the first-round win over Oleksii Krutykh.
However, in the second round of the qualifying, the 37-year-old took on 15 years younger opponent, 22-year-old Tomas Machac from the Czech Republic, who didn't seem to be afraid of the player that he was facing.
In the first set, Anderson managed to hit eight aces, and he even had four break points to steal his opponent's serve in the sixth game. But after those remained unused, the Czech player created his own chances in the ninth game, eventually using the third break point to then win the set 6-4.
The second set was quite similar, but this time, Machac broke early on, and Anderson had to find the answer. He did, in the sixth game, levelling the score of the match. However, his opponent seemed to be unstoppable in the last three games of the match, winning twelve of the last 14 points to win the match 6-4, 7-5, and eliminate the former finalist.
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