Kevin Anderson: “On Wimbledon and My Davis Cup Decision”

We are without a doubt commencing tennis’ finest hour. I am filled with excitement and anticipation of the weeks to come at the Wimbledon Championships located in SW19.

For most tennis players, the ultimate dream is to lift the trophy with a golden hue at the ‘home’ of tennis, where the history and prestige of the event is impossible to ignore.

Many players choose to participate in grass court warm-up tournaments before the main event at Wimbledon. This year, the tour schedule included an additional week of grass court events, and the extra turf time was well received by the players and public alike.

My 2015 schedule comprised just one grass court event in England, The Aegon Championships at The Queen’s Club. I have played at Queens many times before when it was a 250 level event, and it has always proved one of my favourite tournaments.

This year, the Aegon Championships became a 500 level tour event, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t impressed with the strength of the playing field. Among the competitors were hometown favourite and top seed Andy Murray, recent French Open champion Stan Wawrinka, reigning US Open champion Marin Cilic, and the legendary Rafael Nadal.

“I feel bitterly disappointed and let down by Tennis South Africa”

As an unseeded player, I was aware I would have to upset some top players early in the tournament if I wanted to progress. My first task was getting past four-time Queen’s champion Lleyton Hewitt. It was a difficult match against a very talented and experienced grass court player. I managed to save two match points en route to a close three-set win.

My reward was a second round match-up against the man who had just 10 days earlier won the championships at Roland Garros. An in-form Wawrinka was always going to result in a close match. I was thrilled to come away the victor after two tiebreak sets.

In the quarterfinals, I played against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, whom I had lost to in our previous meeting this year. After another tiebreak and a closely contested second set, I was safely through to the semifinals. 30-year-old Gilles Simon was another difficult opponent to lock horns with – the Frenchman makes a lot of returns and is able to hang in the point longer than most players. I knew I needed to play my own game, and by serving well and maintaining an aggressive approach, I secured my passage to the final.

Although my opponent, Murray, prevailed in the championship match, I was really pleased to have reached my first grass court final and my second 500-level final overall against admittedly tough competition.

The next day, I was inspired by the news that I had achieved a career-high world ranking of 14 heading into Wimbledon. I have worked incredibly hard this week to put myself in the best position possible to do well at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

“I will be flying our flag proudly next to my name at Wimbledon this week”

There has been a tremendous amount of support from my coaches and trainers to help me realise my optimal performance from a physical and mental standpoint. As a 9-16 seed, I’ll most likely have to beat a player ranked inside the top 8 in order to achieve my goal of reaching the quarterfinals, or better, of a Major. However, I welcome the challenge and am eager to prove I can achieve the said objective.

Surrounding my career-high ranking and positive result at Queens, I received a lot of attention from the international and South African media. Unfortunately, I was really surprised by reports from back home regarding my purported decision to make myself available for the Davis Cup following Wimbledon, subject to a corporate endorsement.

WHY I FEEL LET DOWN BY ‘TENNIS SOUTH AFRICA’

I feel bitterly disappointed and let down by Tennis South Africa, who issued a press release last Monday that was a very inaccurate portrayal of my stance on Davis Cup competition.

In reality, TSA called my team early last week to report they had found a company willing to pay me a sum of money to play the Davis Cup.

Out of respect, we said of course we could consider the offer and sent the following reply: “He (Kevin) very much appreciates the ‘expression of interest’ but is conscious of managing expectations and doesn’t want to let anyone down if the scheduling and calendar does not co-operate.”

Moreover, at the same time, I was asked by TSA to participate in a conference call with the South African press on the Tuesday – which I was told was to congratulate me on reaching the final of Queens and achieving a career-high ranking.

However, when I got on the phone, the majority of the questions were about a TSA press release that had come out a few hours earlier, and which I had not seen at the time.

Firstly, the release was incorrect and secondly, even if it had been accurate, it was a breach of confidence.

As a result of ongoing speculation, I have decided to offer some closure in this blog post.

I have tried to evaluate each Davis Cup, tie by tie, and the reasons I haven’t played since 2011 have been addressed multiple times before on kevinandersontennis.blogspot.com.

“…my South African pride is most proudly on display when I achieve success on an international scene”

After further examination of the current situation (and others) I have decided that I will be indefinitely unavailable for Davis Cup selection moving forward. My hope is to finally put an end to the constant hearsay that has surrounded my participation in Davis Cup.

The unfortunate reality is that the current scheduling and format of the Davis Cup would require me to make major sacrifices in the way of travel, training, rehabilitation and preparation for major tournaments, like Wimbledon.

Ultimately, such a sacrifice would compromise my results and any hope of competitive representation for South Africa at Grand Slam tournaments.

I recognise that many South Africans associate a team competition against other nations as the ultimate way to show national pride. Although this is the case in rugby, cricket and soccer, I can assure you that, as a tennis player, my South African pride is most proudly on display when I achieve success on an international scene, much like I did last week at the Aegon Championships in London.

Nothing made me more proud than hearing my name as a representative of our great South African nation announced in front of a packed stadium full of enthusiastic fans.

I will be flying our flag proudly next to my name at Wimbledon this week, and my greatest hope is that the people of South Africa will continue to support me as I continue to represent our spectacular country.

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This blog post originally appeared on SuperSport and is republished here with Kevin Anderson’s kind permission.

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