SA's Kevin Anderson battles through to Australian Open second round

South African tennis ace Kevin Anderson has marched through to the second round of the Australian Open with a win over Belarusian qualifier Ilya Ivashka in Melbourne‚ Australia.

The big-serving 33-year-old Anderson battled past Ivashka 6-4‚ 2-6‚ 2-6‚ 6-4‚ 7-6(8) in three hours and 54 minutes to reach the second round on Tuesday.

He completed victory with an overhead‚ having gained the decisive mini-break in the final tie-break when he rushed to the net and Ivashka hit a backhand passing stroke wide.

Former World No. 4 Anderson will next face American 29th seed Taylor Fritz on Thursday‚ who beat Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor 6-3‚ 6-3‚ 6-3.

Earlier on Tuesday‚ Anderson's South African compatriot Lloyd Harris lost to Argentine 14th-seed Diego Schwartzman.

Harris' Australian Open campaign ended after a straight sets loss to the Argentine‚ who won relatively comfortably against the rising South African star with a 6-4‚ 6-2‚ 6-2 score line.

The match lasted just 105 minutes after the 22-year-old Harris dropped serve six times in the match.

He won the eventual ace count 8-4 but that mattered little on a day when he also made 47 unforced errors against 18 by Schwartzman‚ who has a No 14 world ranking.