Cape Town - Kevin Anderson will be confident heading into Friday's Wimbledon third round encounter against German veteran Philipp Kohlschreiber.

The South African eighth seed reached the third round when he completed a four-set victory over Italy’s Andreas Seppi on Thursday.

Anderson had a two sets to one lead when rain interrupted his charge on Wednesday night, but came out firing on Thursday and quickly won the fourth set.

The final scoreline read 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 6-4 in Anderson’s favour.

Next up for Anderson is the 25th-seeded German, who reached the third round when he defeated Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/3).

The 34-year-old Kohlschreiber is an accomplished player, having won eight career titles - twice the amount of Anderson - but he has never beaten the South African in matches on the ATP World Tour.

Anderson boasts a 3-0 head-to-head record against the German and has never dropped a set in their prior meetings.

The pair's most recent encounter was at the Madrid Masters clay court event earlier this year, where Anderson won 6-3, 7-6 (9/7).

Friday’s match will however be their first meeting on grass.

Anderson's best effort at Wimbledon to date is reaching the fourth round on three occasions - 2014, 2015 and 2017.

He'll be eager to reach the quarter-finals for the first time, where he could come up against defending champion Roger Federer.

Meanwhile in the doubles, South Africa's Raven Klaasen and his New Zealand partner Michael Venus advanced to the second round when they defeated Australia duo Lleyton Hewitt and Alex Bolt 7-5, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.

Hewitt, a Wimbledon singles champion in 2002, recently came out of retirement to play doubles.