Edmund tastes victory to set up shot at Djoko in Paris showdown

KYLE Edmund continued his upturn in form with a straight-sets win over Diego Schwartzman at the Rolex Paris Masters to book a showdown with World No.1 Novak Djokovic.

The British No.3 had ended an eight-match losing streak with victory over qualifier Ricardas Berankis in the first round, and maintained momentum to dispatch 14th seed Schwartzman 7-5 6-3.

“It was a really good performance,” Edmund said.

“Yesterday was more about finding a way and today I was on another level, up a gear, everything was more precise and controlled a lot more.

“I just had something about me today and exerted my intensity and physicality on him, as the match grew I got more and more confident.

“I was probably thinking about things more yesterday, so today I had a lot more ‘cruise control’ and everything was flowing better.”

Top seed Djokovic had earlier ended the hopes of French lucky loser Corentin Moutet with a 7-6 (2) 6-4 victory.

Roger Federer has dropped out of the ATP Cup in January, meaning there will be no showdown with Andy Murray.

The 38-year-old had committed to playing the inaugural tournament in Australia at the start of 2020, but has opted out in order to spend more time with his family.

Meanwhile, defending champion Elina Svitolina booked her place in the last four at the WTA Finals in Shenzhen with a straight-sets win over Simona Halep. Svitolina overcame the Romanian 7-5 6-3 in one hour and 39 minutes.