Last year’s runner-up Kevin Anderson was knocked out in the third round at Wimbledon, losing in straight sets to Guido Pella on Centre Court.

Anderson could only convert one of his nine break points on Friday and lost 6-4 6-3 7-6 (7-4) to Pella, who reached the fourth round at a grand slam tournament for the first time.

It’s the second year in a row that Pella knocked out the previous runner-up. He came from two sets down to beat Marin Cilic in 2018.

Anderson lost in straight sets to Novak Djokovic in last year’s final, after coming from two sets down to beat Roger Federer in the quarterfinals and beating John Isner in a six-and-half-hour semi-final.

In the third set, the South African had a break point at 2-1, two more at 3-2 and another one at 4-3, but couldn’t convert any of them. In the tiebreaker, Pella set up match point after a crowd-pleasing rally at the net, and converted it with another volley.

No.10 Karen Khachanov also lost, falling to Roberto Bautista Agut 6-3 7-6 (7-3) 6-1.

Both results could benefit Djokovic, the defending champion who now doesn’t have a single top-10 seeded player left in his side of the draw.

Former finalist Milos Raonic ended Reilly Opelka’s Wimbledon run by beating the towering American in straight sets in the third round.

In a matchup of big servers, Raonic broke twice in each of the last two sets to win 7-6 (7-1) 6-2 6-1 and reach the fourth round for the fifth time.

Both players finished with 13 aces each but Raonic had only seven unforced errors to Opelka’s 31.

The 2.1m tall Opelka was making his Wimbledon debut and knocked out three-time grand slam champion Stan Wawrinka in the second round.

Raonic lost to Andy Murray in the 2016 Wimbledon final.