Kyle Edmund has bowed out of the French Open at the third-round stage after losing in five sets to Kevin Anderson.
The British number two had moved to within a set of a first appearance in the last 16 at Roland Garros, but Anderson eventually prevailed 6-7 7-6 5-7 6-1 6-4.
The defeat will be hard to take for the 22-year-old who pushed the big-serving South African for much of their near four-hour contest, but he failed to build on having finally broken the former world number 10 in the third set.
That had come after the first two sets needed to be decided on tie-breaks but even though Edmund had the momentum after the third, he wilted during the fourth as Anderson began to dominate from all areas of the court.
To Edmund's credit, he battled on gamely in the decider and in one game, saved three break points to remain ahead on the scoreboard but after being broken in the ninth game, he was unable to stop Anderson from serving out the contest.
Anderson now goes on to meet seventh seed Marin Cilic for a place in the quarter-finals.
Darren Plant
