Johannesburg – Kevin Anderson put up a valiant fight to make it through to the fourth round of the Australian Open in Melbourne on Friday beating Edouard Roger-Vasselin 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) 7-5.
The 19th seed fought back against the unseeded Frenchman after being two sets down in a match which lasted just under four hours.
Anderson won the third set and came back from two games down in the fourth to force a tie-breaker and take the match into a fifth set.
Roger-Vasselin broke Anderson's serve early in the fifth but Anderson kept up the battle to eventually level the games at 5-5 on his way to victory.
Anderson scraped through the first round of the tournament, beating Czech Republic's 82nd-ranked Jiri Vesely 2-6, 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
He had an easier time of it in the second round, beating Austria's Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 on Wednesday.
Anderson will play his nemesis, the seventh-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych, in the next round.
The pair have met on nine occasions during the last two years – including at the 2012 and 2013 Australian Open – and Berdych has come out on top in all nine matches. – Sapa