KYLE Edmund’s locker lies adjacent to that of Andy Murray in the All England Club changing room. It is whether he has enough in it to go as far as the Scot has at this venue in recent years that remains to be seen.
The Yorkshireman is far too polite and unassuming a young man to say it but all the 11th hour drama over his friend’s participation or non-participation in this year’s Wimbledon did him something of a disservice. While the world agonised over the health and availability of the World No 147, little if anything was said about the World No 17. This was something of a slight considering the 23-year-old, on the eve of his home Grand Slam, went all the way to the Australian Open semi-finals and recently recorded another milestone on his breakthrough year by defeating the Scot for the first time.
Edmund has revelled under the radar. But there is no hiding place for him any longer. The Scot’s withdrawal from the championships as he recuperates from that serious hip problem leaves a vacuum and Edmund is eager to step out from the shadows, even if it is a mantle which comes with a serious burden of expectation. Savvy enough to soak up the PR points by practising in and England shirt a few days back, Edmund is the man who would be king, even if the baton had to be prised from Murray’s hands at Eastbourne last week, rather than handed over in the customary fashion. After yesterday, when the luckless Jay Clarke joined Liam Broady and Cam Norrie in the list of first round fallers, he is the last British man standing.
The main problem for those predicting a lengthy Edmund run is a record here which verges on the abysmal. Having left Johannesburg for Beverly aged just three, he recalls doing the Wimbledon tour at the age of seven or eight, which at least gives him a positive memory of the place to cherish. Prior to yesterday he had won a solitary main draw match here in five attempts, against fellow Brit Alex Ward in the first round 12 months ago.
Rather than being a Jamaican tennis-playing relative of Usain, his opponent Alex Bolt was an Australian qualifier who had overcome the very same Ward and his fellow Aussie Thanasi Kokkinakis – a man with a 2018 win against Roger Federer on his resume – in qualifying. Edmund graced Centre Court for the first time last year, but yesterday with an early start on Court No 1. If that meant a chance to get everything out the way in time to watch the England match at night, it also saw him exposed to a gusting breeze that at points embarrassed both players.
So is he the real deal? Well, what is undeniable from this 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 win is the fact he has come on hugely in the last year. His body has filled out, his serve has become a weapon and his backhand now compliments a booming forehand that even he uncharacteristically said he ‘feels is the best forehand in the world’. Quite a boast, not least compared to the one that Rafa Nadal was deploying next door. Whenever he uncorked that formidable stroke, there were audibles oohs and aahs, but perhaps what impressed most was the way he used the threat of it to wrongfoot his opponent.
A double break down in no time, another plethora of Australian errors at 2-2 in the second put Bolt behind the eight ball again. Like a bolt from the blue, the Aussie broke the Edmund serve for the first time in the third set, but unable to serve it out, an errant Bolt volley on second match point saw the Murray mantle carried into the second round – even if the two men hadn’t spoken at SW19 at all this year.
“Our lockers are actually next to each other in the changing rooms,” said Edmund, who now faces Bradley Klahn of the USA. “But I actually never saw him. Because Andy is a full member, he obviously keeps his lockers throughout the full year. Because I’m still a temp, I get it for the tournament. I’ve had heaps more off-court stuff to do. It is tough to say if it was because of Andy not being here. “
The BBC network cameras had shunned Edmund for Clarke, who was a set to the good against Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis then extended him into a final set. It was to no avail when Gulbis came through 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-4.
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