Kyle Edmund has reached his first ATP semifinal of the year after knocking out top seed Jack Sock 6-4, 6-1, at the BB&T Atlanta Open.
The world No.45 went down a break during the first set before the match was halted for 20 minutes due to a medical emergency in the crowd. Resuming play, the Brit dominated the remainder of the match by breaking back and winning nine out of the last ten games played. Edmund’s triumph was achieved with the help of four aces and a 82% winning first service rate.
“Yeah it was good to win, especially against a top seed, top-20 in the world like Jack. He’s a dangerous player, but I felt like that I did the best I could to manage the match to neutralize his play. I am pleased.” Said Edmund.
Top seed Sock exits the tournament with an injury cloud looming over his head. After dropping the opening set, he sought a medical timeout and struggled to keep up with the intensity of his opponent.
Set to play in only his second ATP semifinal, Edmund will next face Ryan Harrison. The American fourth seed eased into the last four by crushing American wildcard Christopher Eubanks 6-1, 6-2. Earlier this week local player Eubanks won his first tour-level match.
“Chris was pretty aggressive early and made a few errors, so I was just trying to focus on keeping my first-serve percentage up,” Harrison said after his match. “I usually do a good job of making a lot of balls back and putting the extra ball back on the court, so I think that was something that helped me out on the long run today.”
The upcoming clash will be the first meeting between the two players. Edmund will be bidding to reach his first ATP final and Harrison his second. In the Emirates rankings they are separated by just three places with Harrison being the highest ranked player at 42.
“Kyle’s been coming out. He was playing some amazing tennis at the end of last year and has shown some highlights of that throughout this year as well.” The fourth seed said about the upcoming clash.
Isner Progresses
John Isner continued his winning streak with a 7-5, 6-4, win over Lukas Lacko of Slovakia. The second seed, who won the Newport Open last week, fired a total of 13 aces and successfully fended off the only break point he faced in the match. A three-time champion in Atlanta, it is the eighth consecutive year that he has progressed to the semifinals of the tournament.
“I think most importantly, I’m at home in the United States and playing on my favourite surface. It’s one of the reasons I do well,” Isner told atpworldtour.com. “I don’t want to jinx it, but I’ve always played well here. I love this tournament and have fortunately been healthy enough to keep coming back here.”
Gilles Muller will be awaiting Isner in the semifinals. The Luxemburg player, who recently defeated Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon, brushed aside Tommy Paul 6-3, 6-1, with the help of 16 aces. It will be the third clash between Isner and Muller in Atlanta, but their first since 2011.
“It’s certainly going to be a heavyweight fight tomorrow,” the second seed said. “I know he’s beaten me a few times and I’ve beaten him a few times. There’s usually a tie-break involved because of how we both serve. We’re both playing with a lot of confidence. It should be a very good tilt and I’m looking forward to it.”
Overall, Muller narrowly leads their head-to-head 3-2.
