Edmund impressive as he makes Vienna final

British No 2 Kyle Edmund is into his third semi-final of the year after breezing past Jan-lennard Struff at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna yesterday.

Edmund, playing in a tournament won by Andy Murray last year, saw off the German 6-2 7-5 to book his place in the last four, having also achieved that feat at the Winston-salem Open and Atlanta Open over the American hard-court swing.

Next up will be a Frenchman, either Lucas Pouille or Richard Gasquet, and the chance to reach his first ever final at ATP World Tour level.

Victory in this quarter-final against Struff was never in doubt from the moment Edmund broke his opponent’s serve in the opening game of the match.

He broke again midway through the first set, which he took in 28 minutes, losing just five points on his own serve.

His own delivery looked impenetrable until he was serving for the match, when Struff broke him, but he immediately replied and did not waste his second chance, seeing out an impressive victory.

World No 1 Simona Halep, meanwhile, is out of the WTA Finals in Singapore after losing to Elina Svitolina in the last round-robin match.

Halep needed to beat the Ukrainian to advance out of her group with Caroline Wozniacki, but went down 6-3 6-4 and will now head home.

Furthermore, she will lose her crown as the world’s best if Karolina Pliskova wins the title tomorrow.

Halep’s defeat means that in-form Caroline Garcia joins Wozniacki in the final four to carry on her amazing end-of-season run.

Garcia, who won back-to-back titles in China to seal a spot at the tournament, was looking dead and buried after losing her first round-robin game against Halep but beat Svitolina on Wednesday and came into yesterday’s clash with Wozniacki knowing she had to win.

She might have been preparing herself for a flight home after losing the first set to love, but steeled herself against a player who had only dropped four games in her previous two matches and came through 0-6 6-3 7-5.

The Frenchwoman still had a nervous wait to see if she progressed, but after Svitolina was too good for Halep, it meant that Garcia ended up topping the group.

That set up a semi-final against Venus Williams, while Pliskova lies in wait for Wozniacki.

Semi-final place for Kyle Edmund.