Opponent's incredible act of sportsmanship for Aussie tennis star

Matt Ebden has thanked Kevin Anderson for a brilliant gesture that allowed their first-round meeting at the Japan Open to go ahead.

Anderson, the tournament’s second seed, came from one set down to defeat the Australian 4-6 7-6 (7-1) 6-2 on Wednesday.

But the match could have been cancelled if Anderson wanted it to be – Ebden had been ill since he was knocked out of the Chengdu Open last week.

The 30-year-old made the five-hour flight from China to Tokyo and spent the next few days attempting to recover.

The majority of first-round matches were played on Monday and Tuesday but Anderson stepped in to make sure Ebden had the chance to compete.

While the decision nearly backfired on the lanky South African when he lost the first set, the Australian was full of praise for his opponent.

“Authentic people with character are hard to find. Today I lost a close one. That is not what this post is about, I’d be making it today whether I won or not,” Ebden wrote on Instagram.

“Over the last five days unfortunately I got quite sick with fever etc. In fact I was having to look at withdrawing from playing singles this week in Tokyo Open due to illness.

“Upon request from the ATP, and tournament, my opponent Kevin Anderson agreed to wait until a Wednesday start to give me the chance to recover and have a chance to play.

“Not too sure how many people out there would do that. Appreciate it mate as I told you, good luck the rest of the tournament.”

Anderson will now back up to face Frances Tiafoe on Thursday, barely 24 hours after battling past Ebden.

Ebden remains in the Tokyo doubles draw and is scheduled to fly back to China to take part in qualifying for next week’s Shanghai Masters.

Teenager set to leap Aussie mainstay

In other results at the Tokyo Open this week, Nick Kyrgios and Alex de Minaur won through to second-round matches against Richard Gasquet and Stefanos Tsitsipas respectively.

The Aussies are battling for the nation’s top ranking, with de Minaur in the box seat to jump Kyrgios and become the first teenage No.1 since Bernard Tomic in 2011.

The teenager’s fighting qualities were again at the fore on Wednesday as he saved four match points to move through to the second round of the Japan Open.

Fast gaining a reputation as one of the toughest competitor’s on tour even before turning 20, de Minaur again had to do it the hard way to beat France’s Gilles Simon 6-7 (7-1) 7-6 (7-5) 6-2.

Simon served for the match and had his chances to close it out but de Minaur broke back and claimed the second set tiebreak before running away with the third set.

The victory set up a meeting with one of the form players of the tour, fellow young gun Stefanos Tsitsipas.

De Minaur saved four match points against Andrey Rublev in August on his way to the Citi Open final and recovered from a break in the decider of his Shenzen Open round of 16 match against Mackenzie McDonald last week.

Projected to rise to at least No.33 in the world next week from his current ranking of 38, de Minaur may well find himself the new Australian No.1 unless Nick Kyrgios can do something special in Tokyo.

A finalist from last year and the nation’s top-ranked player since April 2016, Kyrgios has 300 points to defend and will need to go deep to ensure he doesn’t slide outside the world’s top 35.

He started well enough on Wednesday, serving 20 aces in his first-round win over Yoshihito Nishioka.

The world No.27 converted just two of nine break-point opportunities but proved clinical when it mattered most to prevail 7-5 7-6 (7-3) in one hour and 13 minutes.

with AAP