Kyle Edmund is into a Masters Series quarterfinal for the first time having comprehensively beaten 8th seeded David Goffin 6-3 6-3 in 72 minutes.
Kyle Edmund (Zimbio.com)
The 23 year old British No.1 who is set to move into the top 20 for the first time next week, looked composed and showed great mental fortitude from start to finish as he continued his impressive run in the Spanish capital.
The two had met just once before, with Goffin winning on clay in the Davis Cup final in 2015 after being two sets to love down. However, today, Edmund would not allow Goffin to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
A break of the opening Goffin serve saw Edmund secure an immediate psychological advance, and he broke serve again to wrap up the opening set in 32 minutes on his third set point with a thunderous forehand winner.
Edmund saved two break points in the first game of the second set and held, and from there games went with serve until the sixth game when unforced errors from the racket of the Belgian gifted Edmund the break of serve. As Goffin dumped a tame routine cross court forehand into the net on break point, the Brit exclaimed “Come on!” as he moved 4-2 ahead.
Edmund had a chance to close out the match with a second break of the Goffin serve in the next game when he reached match point aided by a sublime running one handed backhand slice pass that had the fans on Aranxta Sanchez court purring with admiration. A netted backhand return saw that opportunity scuppered, but he eventually closed out the match on his third match point on serve when Goffin on the stretch netted his forehand.
Edmund served 7 aces and won an impressive 86% of his first service points. He converted 3/7 break point chances.
“Yeah, I played well, got good confidence from yesterday. Knew I was playing well so it was just obviously trying to do more of the same today with a slightly different opponent. I feel I got the game plan good, managed it well and served very well today.” Edmund said. “Different matches and different courts. It’s really hard to judge whether it’s better or not. I played very well yesterday and was happy with it, and today same again. Sometimes scorelines are different. Similar situation to yesterday; breaking to win the first set and yesterday I lost my first game of the second set. Today I was 15-40 and I didn’t falter. That’s a situation where maybe if I’d have got broken then it could be trickier, but I did well to hold on, and then once I held on I was managing my serve and broke at a good time.”
Not suffering a mental letdown after the jubilation of beating Novak Djokovic yesterday was something that Edmund was very aware of.
“Yeah, I think I’ve experienced that sort of game, when you are more of a junior. I think you get a reminder that when you get win one week. The next week you always get told make sure you back it up. Don’t lose in the first round. So you keep that momentum going. It is similar to this, having a good win. But I think I’ve been long enough on the tour now that a good win is nice, but when you have been here so long. A good win doesn’t mean anything. You have to produce consistent good wins to go up the rankings. I was eager to just go out there and keep my momentum going.”
“It’s a constant learning, but also on the court everybody has to do it. It is not like you’re born with all the knowledge of tennis. Of course, there is learning. You learn from other people and you learn within yourself. You take advice from, you know, you have a good mix of everything. That’s something, especially slams where you pretty much have to defeat quality players every round. You have to keep backing it up.”
Looking ahead to the quarterfinals, Edmund knows he’s going to have a tough match whoever he plays.
“Both very aggressive in their own way. Shapovalov has got good ground strokes and likes to come forward, and very active when he plays and stuff. Raonic speaks for himself with his serve and ground strokes. He’s a big powerful guy and so it’s going to be tough. Into the quarterfinals where everyone is playing well, so I will just keep doing my own thing, recover and enjoy this win. Once I know who I’m playing I will look ahead to that.”
With news that Andy Murray’s recovery is not going as well as had been hoped, Edmund shared his thoughts about the two-time Wimbledon champion’s predicament.
“It’s not nice with Murray being out of the game and, touch wood, I haven’t had a long period out of the game like that because of injury. I’ve had niggles where you have to take a few weeks off, but mentally it’s just frustrating wanting to play and doing as much work as he can. The body is one of those things that is quite fickle and it’s really hard to measure it and you the process to speed up.”
A dejected Goffin reflected on the tricky conditions on Aranxta Sanchez court with the court being half in the sun and half in shadow.
“I think it was a really tough day, really bad, bad conditions I think from both sides – there was no good points from the beginning until the end”, Goffin complained. “It was not easy, not a good match. I think for both sides it was just terrible. But, in the end, he played a little bit better and was more focused maybe. I’m not happy. I just was feeling good, but the conditions was not great and I was focused on it and I’m a little bit angry on myself now.”
Goffin was not quite so unequivocal about the improvements in the Edmund game and whether he could reach the final this week.
“Honestly, it’s tough to say today because I didn’t put one ball in the court. But, yeah, what I saw in the last few months he improved a lot, great forehand, great first serve. He looks like a great guy with a great mentality, so yeah, he’s improving a lot. It’s only the quarter-finals, there are so many good players so it’s a tough question. He has the potential, yeah but we will see on the next round.”
