THE widely forecast manic Monday for British tennis turned out instead to be rather magnificent one after Kyle Edmund and Heather Watson joined Andy Murray in the second round draw at the French Open.
While there was little in the way of surprise that Watson should emerge stronger than France's Mathilde Johansson in a hard-fought 7-5, 6-4 encounter, the real story of the day belonged to Edmund, the 20-year-old from Beverley in Yorkshire, whose 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 victory against another home favourite Stephane Robert as the gloom decended around Roland Garros was notable for a number of reasons. Not only was it his first-ever Grand Slam win, it was his maiden victory over five sets, and the first by any Brit outside of Andy Murray here since Tim Henman back in 2006. It also moved him into the world's top 100 for the first time.
Edmund said afterwards that he was particularly appreciative of the efforts of Murray, who had watched the closing stages then texted his congratulations to the current World No 121. Perhaps there was also some scouting work going on: should the Yorkshireman overcome Aussie wonderkid Nick Kyrgios in the next round, and Murray take care of his second round opponent, they could be destined to meet.
"He's obviously just played his match, and he's gone through all his recovery stuff and he doesn't have to come out and watch me, but he has," said Edmund, after shocking the home crowd with his defeat of the veteran Robert. "It just shows that he really cares. I'm very fortunate someone like that is keen to help me. I will take as much help as I can get from him.
"There were a lot of emotions going on in the match," he added, "but I just tried to stay very level and calm. I knew I had the game to win. But it's one thing to know you have the game to win and doing it."
Watson now faces Sloane Stephens, who was victorious in an all-American clash with Venus Williams. The Channel Islander has won all four of their previous head-to-head meetings and nothing that happened yesterday will discourage her from making it five.
"I dealt with the important moments and points well today," Watson said. "I didn't necessarily do anything special. I just made her play that extra ball. I felt from the first ball she was playing very well, especially returning very well, and hitting a lot of winners. But I made sure I stayed there, because I was also expecting some errors as well."
Even the day's two other Brits were going down fighting. Aljaz Bedene, playing at a Grand Slam for the first time since getting UK citizenship in March, extended matters into a fourth set before going down 6-3, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3 to the big-hitting Dominic Thiem of Austria, a man who captured his first ATP Tour title in Nice only last week. Jo Konta lost a brutal first set tie-break 19-17 before going down 7-6, 4-6,6-2 to Denisa Allertova.
Venus Williams apart, it was a day when most of the seeds in both the men's and women's draws progressed unmolested. Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka, and dangerous Spanish duo Carla Suarez Navarro and Gabine Muguruza marched on, as did Tomas Berdych, Gilles Simon and Fabio Fognini.
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