Edmund throws in the towel
NOW KYLE MAY MISS WIMBLEDON
Kyle edmund has tried different things to equip himself with the robustness needed for life on the ATP Tour, including training with former US navy Seal david Goggins.
It all seemed to be paying off earlier this week when he came through a four- hour match at the French Open, beating Jeremy Chardy in front of a partisan crowd.
yesterday was a different story, when he quit while trailing uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas 7-6, 6-3, 2-1 with the recurrence of a knee injury that could yet pose a problem for him at Wimbledon.
After the most cursory examination by a tournament medic, the British no 1 signalled the end not just of his second round, but of a deflating clay season in which he lost six out of eight matches.
He was unsure afterwards if it would have much effect on his grass-court campaign, but in any case it would be wrong to expect too much from a player who has won only six main tour- level matches all season.
The 24- year- old yorkshireman is a better player than his 2019 record suggests and it is difficult to know how much of a factor his left knee might have been, especially as he did not appear to be moving that badly when he stopped.
He said: ‘ I just wasn’t happy with my knee. So I didn’t feel it was obviously right to carry on. I’ve been dealing with it for quite a while. So it’s not anything new. It’s just been having to manage it. The body fluctuates, different feelings, different pains. So sometimes you feel good, sometimes not. Obviously your workload can affect it. So playing a long match the other day has a bit of an impact as well.’ edmund is one of the few home players capable of a run at Wimbledon and asked whether the knee problem might keep him out of the Championships, he replied: ‘I hope not. I’ll try to do everything I can.’ In best-of-five matches it is the 14th time in a row that he has not pushed a match beyond three sets when he has lost the first two. On the evidence of recent weeks the best hope of maintaining domestic interest at Wimbledon is Jo Konta and possibly dan evans. later today Konta will try to become the first British woman since Jo durie and Anne Hobbs in 1983 to reach the last 16 at Roland Garros when she faces Viktoria Kuzmova.
The world no 46 from Slovakia has plenty about her, and not just big groundstrokes and a big serve. She is studying for a degree in international law and diplomacy and likes Shakespeare (in her native language).
Kuzmova, 21, is currently reading Hamlet for the fifth time, which is something of a contrast to some of her British peers, Konta excepted, who seem constantly preoccupied with their social media accounts.
Although she is an improver on many fronts, this is her first time in a Grand Slam third round, so it presents a good opportunity for the British no 1 to progress.
Serena Williams was much improved yesterday in coming through 6-3, 6-2 against Japan’s Kurumi nara, and double Grand Slam champion naomi Osaka played her best clay-court match of the year to come back and beat former world no 1 Victoria Azarenka 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.