Following an emphatic second round win at the Australian Open, Kyle Edmund expected there to be questions about his compatriot Andy Murray after the match.
The world No.49 was in fine form during his straightforward 6-2, 6-2, 6-4, win over Denis Istomin. A player who defeated Novak Djokovic at the tournament 12 months ago. The most impressive thing wasn’t Edmund reaching the third round of the grand slam for the first time. It was the manor in which he did so. Against Istomin, he dropped just three points behind his first serve and hammered 38 winners without facing a single break point.
“I’m playing well. I’m happy with where I’m at in my game, stuff I’m working on.” Said Edmund.
“I knew going into this match physically I was good, the way I’m hitting the ball. If he (Istomin) was going to beat me today, I knew I was going to put up a good fight.
“Today was good, a good, professional performance, did what I needed to do. I held my concentration well. Just managed my game well, as well, regardless of what was going down his end.”
As the only British player in the men’s draw this year, Edmund is trying to live up to high expectations. Three-time grand slam champion Murray pulled out of the event earlier in the month before undergoing hip surgery. Peaking at a high of 40th in the world last year, the 23-year-old is destined one day to become his country’s best player. Although for now he will have to contend with living in the shadows of the former world No.1.
“My preparation and stuff doesn’t change because Andy is here or isn’t. I still go through the same process, same preparation, same thoughts on court.” He said during his press conference.
“When I’m on court, I don’t start thinking I’m the only Briton. I might play worse, I might play better. Doesn’t go through my head.”
Despite the assertive words, the Murray questions continued. The latest was about if Edmund has conducted training with bursts of 400m runs. Similar to that of Murray. The Yorkshire-born player conducts sprints of 80m with 15 second breaks inbetween. Following on from that, another question was about the length of his hot weather training. Again linking with the fact Murray cut his short in what was a clear trend.
Q. How many days or weeks of warm weather training did you do during the winter? Andy cut his short.
KYLE EDMUND: Well, I wasn’t with him.
Q. Where were you this year?
KYLE EDMUND: I was in The Bahamas. I was there for all 15 days pretty much.
The stakes will be hotter and so will be the weather
Set to play his third round match on Friday, Edmund will have another factor to deal with. The Melbourne weather with the forecasted temperature expected to be almost 40 degrees. A far from ideal climate for an Englishman, who got sunburn on the first day of the tournament.
“You expect it to be hot in Australia. That’s why you prepare, do all the hours on court in the off-season. That’s why most players don’t really do a pre-season indoors in the cold, because the first tournaments of the year are in very hot conditions in Australia.” Said Edmund.
“You have to be fit for it. You expect hot conditions here. That’s it really.”
His third round opponent will be world No.61 Nikoloz Basilashvili. A player who has reached two ATP finals, so far in his career. The Georgian moved into the last 32 with a straight sets win over Ruben Bemelmans. Edmund defeated Basilashvili in the first round of the French Open almost two years ago.
“He’s obviously a very aggressive player. I played him in Paris a couple years ago. Takes swings at the ball. He has errors, but he has lots of winners.” The Brit said about his upcoming opponent.
“He’s just a very aggressive player, very good ball-striker. You just have to accept that and expect that when you play him, that he’s going to hit some winners, he’s probably going to give you some errors.”
Edmund will be bidding to reach the fourth round of a grand slam for only the second time after the 2016 US Open.
