It was a year of firsts for Kevin Anderson. In 2015, he finally advanced past the fourth round at a Grand Slam and found himself ranked inside the Top 10 for a short time. 2016 figures to be a make or break year for the 29-year-old.
Win-Loss Record
Anderson racked up a career-best 46 wins in 2015 to go with 24 losses. His previous high for wins was in 2011 when he won 42 matches. He won just a single title on the season, but did manage to make two other finals. It marked the third straight season that he made multiple ATP-level finals. Anderson also won a career high 12 matches at Grand Slams this season, along with an 11-8 record in Masters 1000 events.
High Points
The ultimate moment for Kevin Anderson came at the U.S. Open. After winning his first title of the season the week before in Winston-Salem, the South African pulled off one of the stunners of the tournament when he beat third seeded Andy Murray in the fourth round 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (0). The victory would put Anderson into his first Grand Slam quarterfinal, where he would drop out in straight sets to Stan Wawrinka. It was still a thrilling moment though for a man who was seemingly eternally destined to always be a fourth round exit at slams. Seven of the 11 slams prior to the 2015 U.S. Open had seen Anderson lose in the fourth round.
Low Points
The high of making his first Grand Slam quarterfinal did not last long. Anderson would be booted from his first tournament following the U.S. Open in routine fashion in the opening round. At the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo, Anderson was beaten easily by Gilles Muller 6-2, 6-3. After nearly a month off since the U.S. Open, Anderson looked rusty and ragged in that match. The mighty serve that propelled him so far in New York did not show up in the Far East. He was broken three times by a player not known for his return ability. Although it's not exactly shameful, Anderson also continued to struggle against Top 10 opponents, going just 3-10 against them in 2015. It is a big part of the reason why the fourth round had been such a bug-a-boo until his win over Murray at the U.S. Open.
Best Results
The three weeks from the opening of the Winston-Salem Open to the close of the U.S. Open saw Anderson earn his best run of results on the season. In that span, he carried a nine match winning streak over from Winston-Salem through to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open. In six of those wins, he would not drop a set. He earned back-to-back Top 20 wins against Dominic Thiem and Andy Murray in the U.S. Open third and fourth rounds. His title run at Winston-Salem saw him drop just one set in five matches to claim just his third ATP World Tour title, and first since 2012 at Delray Beach.
Worst Results
Anderson had two different stretches where he had very meager results. Early in the season during the first European clay court swing, he would lose his first match in successive tournaments at the Estoril Open and the Mutua Madrid Open. The loss in Spain to Simone Bolelli was especially perplexing as the then-63rd ranked Italian dismantled him 6-3, 6-3. Although Anderson is not known for great clay court play, he had normally beaten lower ranked players on the surface.
His second spot of struggle came during the first few hard court matches on the summer's North American swing. After a solid fourth round Wimbledon run, Anderson did not transition well at the Citi Open in Washington, D.C. where he lost to talented teen Alexander Zverev in three sets. He could not find the measure against Lukas Rosol the following week in Montreal at the Rogers Cup either. The worst loss of the season might have been his first though as he dropped his opener in Brisbane to doubles specialist Lukasz Kubot. It was Kubot's only tour level win in singles in 2015 and his first on a hard court in over a year.
Grade: C+
Anderson showed similar in 2015 to previous seasons with the notable exception of making that first Grand Slam quarterfinal. He did crack into the Top 10 briefly in October and ended the year ranked 12th. To take the next step, Anderson will need to begin making finals more routinely than just once or twice a season, and he'll need to do it at bigger events. The South African will turn 30 in the summer of 2016, so his window of opportunity may be relatively small for stepping his game up to the level needed to achieve greatness. However, his massive serve should give him a chance to potentially score another marquee win or two on faster surfaces.