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Cape Town - Wimbledon finalist Kevin Anderson says he intends to play under the South African flag for the remainder of his professional tennis career.
READ: Kevin Curren remains loyal to SA
Anderson made headlines this past fortnight by reaching the Wimbledon final, where he lost 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (7/3) to the Serbia’s Novak Djokovic.
It was an impressive run to the final for Anderson, who beat eight-time former champion Roger Federer in the quarter-finals, before winning a marathon six hour and 36 minute semi-final against American John Isner.
Anderson, who lives in Gulf Stream in Florida and is married to an American, applied for US citizenship a few years ago and after his win over Federer he responded to a question about whether he still intended to do so.
“It's still in the process,” Anderson said when probed on the matter.
Anderson was interviewed on Jacaranda FM on Tuesday where the matter was again brought up.
He was asked whether he would be playing under the SA flag for a while, to which he responded: “Yes, I’m going to play under the SA flag for the rest of my career.”
Anderson said in 2015 he was hoping to “keep my African citizenship and hopefully have the dual citizenship", adding that his attempt to gain US citizenship was “just a matter of logistics.”
Following his heroics at Wimbledon, Anderson reached a career-high world ranking of No 5 and he is hoping to further improve.
“I feel like I belong. I need to keep working hard and hopefully give myself more opportunities like this,” Anderson continued in the radio interview on Tuesday.
“It’s a goal I’ve had for a long time. I think it took a little longer than I would have liked but I’m really happy to be standing here now at No 5 in the world.”
Anderson added that he would be looking to further creep up the rankings and reach more Grand Slam finals.
“It’s a dream coming true. But I think I can re-align my goals and I feel like I can continue down the path that I’m on then there’s no reason why I can’t get that ranking even higher.”
Anderson has now played in two Grand Slam finals, having lost to Rafael Nadal in last year’s US Open final.
