At just over two metres tall, when Kevin Anderson reaches for the stars he’s unlikely to come up short.

Thanks to his imposing serve and powerful baseline game, he has been the top-ranked South African male tennis player since he made the final of the Tennis Channel Open in Las Vegas in March 2008.

He won his first ATP title in his hometown, Johannesburg, in February 2011 and has been climbing the ranks ever since. In 2015 he made it onto the list of the world’s top-10 players, the first South African since Wayne Ferreira 18 years back, and he reached his first grand slam quarterfinal at Flushing Meadows that same year.

Of course, it’s not always “Advantage Anderson”. A big disadvantage is that he has to face the media after a loss, a task he still finds difficult, even though he understands that the journalists are just doing their jobs.

What was his biggest win? Marrying his college sweetheart, Kelsey.

She is always at his side, barely missing a game in nearly four years. In fact, there are two things he couldn’t travel without, he says. His wife and his guitar.

Find Kevin on Twitter: @kevinanderson18