• South Africa's Kevin Anderson faces German fifth-seed Alexander Zeverev in the US Open first round.
• Anderson has lost all five of his ATP Tour encounters against Zverev.
• SA's other singles contestant, Lloyd Harris, opens his account against Italian Marco Cecchinato, a former French Open semi-finalist.

South Africa's Kevin Anderson faces a tough opening round encounter at the US Open against German fifth-seed Alexander Zverev.

After Thursday's draw, Anderson was drawn in the top half which also includes top seed Novak Djokovic from Serbia and fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas from Greece.

Anderson, a former world No 5, reached the US Open final in 2017 where he lost to Spain's Rafael Nadal.

However, after an injury-plagued last year, the tall South African is currently ranked 124th and enters his match-up against Zverev with a 0-5 record. The 23-year-old German beat Anderson twice in Washington DC (2015 and 2017), at Masters 1000 events in Rome and Montreal (both 2017) and the Laver Cup in 2018.

Meanwhile, South Africa's other contestant in the men's singles, Lloyd Harris, opens his account against Italian Marco Cecchinato.

Harris, the world No 97, has never faced the 106th-ranked Cecchinato on the ATP Tour but will be wary of the Italian who made a name for himself when he beat Djokovic in the 2018 French Open quarter-finals.

South Africa's doubles star, Raven Klaasen, will partner Austrian Oliver Marach in the men's doubles, but the draw is yet to be announced.

Klaasen is currently ranked 12th in the world in doubles.