Great British wildcard James Ward has been knocked out of Queen's in the opening round by Kevin Anderson this afternoon.
South African-born Anderson began the encounter brightly and served out his opening game to love.
Ward, 25, responded with a service hold of his own as both players found break points hard to come by.
The first one went Ward's way in the penultimate game, which he took to open up a 5-4 advantage before serving out to claim the opening set against a player ranked 140 places above him in the standings.
Ward failed to build upon that success though, as he surrendered his serve in the fourth game of the second set to allow Anderson to take a 3-1 lead.
The 26-year-old capitalised on that slip-up to go on to force a decider courtesy of a 6-3 win.
Anderson, who served 16 aces, again claimed the Ward serve early in the third set for a 2-1 advantage. The number nine seed went on to hold his remaining service games to secure his passage through to round two 4-6 6-3 6-4.
Ward reached the semi-finals of the competition last year.
Liam Apicella
