By Mark Etheridge

Our top-ranked tennis player Kevin Anderson went out in the second round of the Farmer’s Classic tournament in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

Anderson had beaten Ukraine’s Illya Marchenka in the first round with a straights sets 6-3 6-2 win.

That set him up with a clash against Sam Querrey, but the tournament’s second seed proved too good for the big-serving Johannesburg athlete who succumbed 7-6 (10-8) 4-6 6-0. Anderson nevertheless still picked up in excess of $10,000 for reaching the second round. American Querrey is the world’s 20th ranked player and is defending champion at the tournament.

Anderson has shown some fine form of late and this week saw him being ranked 80th in the world, an improvement of 16 positions after he had reached the semi-finals of the Atlanta Championships last week, the second time he has gone that far in an ATP tournament.

The towering South African went down in a three-hour battle with American John Isner. It was Isner who was involved in the longest tennis match in history at Wimbledon recently, in excess of 11 hours, against France’s Nicholas Mahut. Anderson picked up $27,000 for getting to the semi-finals.

Anderson is a key figure in South Africa’s vital World Group play-off against Germany away from home in September. Anderson hasn’t played Davis Cup tennis for more than a year now and team captain John-Laffnie de Jager is desperate to persuade him back to the fold.