Edmund turns to Grand Slam winning coach
KYLE EDMuND is set to turn to one of the world’s leading coaches next season in a bid to revive a career that has flagged badly this year.
The long-time British No 1, who is on an eight-match losing streak, has lined up former Argentina Davis Cup captain and top-30 player Franco Davin.
Sportsmail understands that the pair will have a trial week together after the Paris Masters with a view to making the arrangement permanent, providing all goes as expected.
Davin has just split from Italian star Fabio Fognini — about Edmund’s polar opposite in temperament — but is best known for his six years spent with Juan Martin Del Potro.
He helped guide a 20-year- old Del Potro to the uS open title in 2009, which would surely have been the precursor to more Grand Slam titles had the big Argentine not been beset by injuries.
Bulgarian star Grigor Dimitrov has been another client and Davin is also known for holding the record as the youngest man to win an ATP Tour match at 15 years and one month old.
Davin, 49, is based in Miami close to where Edmund has a home in the Bahamas and is highly regarded within the sport.
Edmund plays Lithuania’s Ricardas Berankis today in the Paris first round, trying to arrest the poor form which sees him without a win since early August.
Thrust into the role of British No 1 in the prolonged absence of Andy Murray, the 24-year-old from Yorkshire has struggled to fulfil the potential he showed when reaching the semi-finals of the 2018 Australian open.
After winning the European open in Antwerp 12 months ago, his ranking rose to a high of No 14, but has subsequently slumped to 75 and he is now the British No 3.
This year he has lost both his coaches, Swede Freddie Rosengren departing in February and Mark Hilton leaving last month. The latter has since taken up a similar position with Dan Evans.
Edmund’s confidence has been shot to pieces, not helped by some difficult draws.
Davin, easygoing but determined, will know that Edmund’s game — which features a huge weapon in his bludgeoning forehand — ought to belong well inside the top 50.
Edmund is not even assured of making the British team to contest the new Davis Cup finals next month, battling it out with Cam Norrie for the last singles berth.
Norrie has been in much better form and qualified for the Paris Masters, but lost in the first round proper yesterday — 6-3, 6-2 to Canada’s former Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic.
Davis Cup captain Leon Smith was watching courtside.
‘Leon spoke to me and said we are waiting to see who is in better indoor form and that’s fair enough,’ said Norrie. ‘I’m about 25 places higher in the rankings at the moment, but Kyle is obviously dangerous with his game.’