Hawkeye drama in quarters boilover

Kyle Edmund has become the first British man not named Andy Murray to reach the Australian Open men’s singles semifinals in four decades.

The unseeded 23-year-old held his nerve to down Bulgarian No 3 seed Grigor Dimitrov 6-4 3-6 6-3 6-4 yesterday in a match lasting two hours and 45 minutes.

In a roller-coaster of a match, the most outrageous drama was saved for the end.

With Dimitrov serving at 4-4 in the fourth set, the incredible match hit fever-pitch when Edmund called for a review on a ball that was called good by the linesman.

With scores at 30-15, Dimitrov’s groundstroke appeared to catch the line on the umpire’s side of Rod Laver Arena in what appeared to be a clean winner.

However, Edmund challenged the call — and insanity ensued.

The Hawkeye technology display on the big screen inside Rod Laver Arena showed Dimitrov’s shot landed right next to the line — and on first glimpse appeared impossible to discern if the line had been caught or not.

The call was so close the Hawkeye display failed and did not show any indication on the big screen if the shot has wide or not.

It eventually took the graphic zooming in on the line to see that the ball sailed wide by just 1mm.

From there, at 15-40, Edmund broke serve and went on to win. “It’s an amazing feeling. I’m very happy,” said Edmund.

“With these things you’re so emotionally engaged that you don’t really take it in.”

With three-time major champion Murray absent this year due to a hip injury and women’s No 9 seed Johanna Konta departing in the second round, the unseeded Edmund has found himself in the unfamiliar situation of being the focus of British tennis interest at a major. It’s a position he has handled with aplomb.

“Wow!” tweeted Murray after Edmund became only the sixth British man in the Open era to reach the last four at a grand slam. — AAP/news.com.au