SA singles run ends at Aus Open
South Africa's run in singles competition at the Australian Open came to an end on Friday when the country's No 1 men's player Kevin Anderson was eliminated in the third round.
Anderson put up a strong challenge against world No 7 Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, taking the first two sets to tie-breaks.
However, Berdych dominated the third to win 7-6 (5), 7-6 (1), 6-1.
Chanelle Scheepers lost out in the first round of the women's singles competition earlier in the week when she was eliminated by former world No 2 Svetlana Kuznetsova after taking the Russian to three sets.
Veteran Davis Cup player Rik de Voest, a late entry after the withdrawal of German Florian Mayer, was knocked out by Lu Yen-Hsun of Taiwan on the opening day of the Grand Slam tournament.
Natalie Grandin was the only South African player left in the competition after making it through to the second round of the women's doubles competition.
Grandin and Czech partner Vladimira Uhlirova fought back to beat Sorana Cirstea and Lucie Safarova 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the first round.
Seeded ninth, Grandin and Uhlirova will face the Romanian pairing of Irina-Camelia Begu and Monica Niculescu in the second round on Saturday.
The winners of that match will square up against fifth seeds Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova of Russia.