Kevin Anderson and Raven Klaasen will again lead South Africa’s charge for a tennis Grand Slam title at the Australian Open.
Having both reached the final at Wimbledon last year, they have never won a major.
In the case of Klaasen, 36, time is perhaps running out and this year will in all likelihood be his biggest shot at claiming that elusive crown.
Anderson, 32, is in the form of his life and will be boosted by winning the International Tennis Writers’ Association’s (ITWA) Ambassador of the Year award in 2018.
Anderson got his search for a first Grand Slam title underway at 2 am this morning when he faced France’s, Adrian Mannarino.
Klaasen and his New Zealand partner Michael Venus seeded sixth for the tournament, will square off against American Bradley Klahn and his Kazakhstan partner Mikhail Kukushkin in the first round.
While the duo will be carrying the flag for South Africa, they aren’t the only local players that will be involved in the tournament.
Capetonian Lloyd Harris, 21, made it through the qualifiers to book his place in the tournament.
Harris, whose only other Grand Slam involvement was a first-round defeat at last year’s US Open, will cross swords with Russian 15th seed Daniil Medvedev on Tuesday.
Go Team SA!