South Africa’s Kevin Anderson suffered a first-round loss to Britain’s Kyle Edmund at the Australian Open on Monday.
Edmund, who was born in Johannesburg, came back from two-sets-to-one down, and 2-0 down in the final set, to win 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a minute short of four hours.
The 23-year-old will face Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin in the second round.
Anderson came into this Australian Open as the 11th seed, having reached last year’s US Open final, while Edmund was 49th in the world rankings.
In other shock results, US Open women’s champion Sloane Stephens crashed out 2-6, 7-6 (7/2), 6-2 to Zhang Shuai in an error-strewn performance.
Last year’s Australian Open women’s finalist Venus Williams was also knocked out in the first round, by world No 78 Belinda Bencic. The Swiss hit 32 winners and only 12 unforced errors in her 6-3, 7-5 win.
