Edmund will not be buying a Ferrari if he beats Cilic

British No2 eyes first grand slam final but coach says he will keep his feet on ground,

According to his coach, Kyle Edmund “won’t run out and buy a Ferrari” if he wins today’s Australian Open semi-final against Marin Cilic. Even though his prize money would stand at a minimum of £1.14million.

Edmund, in the view of Fredrik Rosengren, is more of a Volkswagen Polo kind of guy: “Down to earth, polite, very humble.” In this, he takes after his mentor Andy Murray, who did buy a red Ferrari in 2009 but sold it soon afterwards. “When I got out of it,” Murray explained later, “I felt like an idiot.”

But there is a time and a place for mildness and deference, and it is not at the Rod Laver Arena at 8.30am UK time. If Edmund’s miraculous run is to continue, he must stand his ground in the face of Cilic’s 134 mph serve and albatross wingspan at the net.

The result is hard to predict because this is still so new, both to him and to us. Until Tuesday, when he dominated the ATP Finals champion Grigor Dimitrov over four sets, Edmund had played 14 matches against top-10 opposition and lost the lot. His overall grand slam record stood at an unprepossessing 11 wins from 23 attempts.

The change in his fortunes began in Brisbane three weeks ago, where he scored a three-set victory over Chung Hyeon – the 21-year-old South Korean who won his own quarter-final yesterday against Tennys Sandgren. But it was not until he claimed the scalp of Kevin Anderson at Melbourne Park that the locker room began to take notice.

Now even Roger Federer is saluting the arrival of Edmund and Chung, aged 23 and 21 respectively, who have just become the first unseeded players to reach the semi-finals of a grand slam since Marat Safin and Rainer Schuttler at Wimbledon in 2008.

“It’s great to see new names,” Federer told on-court interviewer Jim Courier, after his own straightsets win over Tomas Berdych. “We need it moving forward. The way both of them made it to the semis is impressive. I like it, because it’s something totally new to me.”

If Edmund remains an international obscurity, his profile at home is growing fast. Just as Scottish celebrities Sir Billy Connolly, Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Sean Connery used to descend on major finals involving Murray, so the TV chef Gordon Ramsay showed up at Melbourne Park yesterday for a photo opportunity.

Such trimmings do not yet come easily to Edmund. For the past few years, he has been the one playing on outside courts, ghosting through the crowds, puking politely into a bin after a rough gym session (Edmund does everything politely).

But things have changed this season, and not only because Murray is indisposed. With Rosengren on his case, Edmund has realised it is not enough to be a model professional. Nobody wins these titles without developing some kind of edge. He does not strut, exactly, but with each win he holds his back straighter and shoulders squarer.

“I was so happy when I saw him walk on court on Tuesday,” said Rosengren yesterday. “I told him to go in there with the eyes [open], the chest out and enjoy. I said to him after, ‘Even if you had been killed out there, that was the first thing. Good. This is something we work on – take the stage, be the man, no excuses. You’re playing a quarter-final because you deserve it’.”

The right coach can transform a player in a matter of weeks, as we saw not only with Murray and Ivan Lendl, but with Stan Wawrinka and Magnus Norman. Rosengren was Norman’s coach when he was No2 in the world, and also his mentor post-retirement. Much of the technical expertise that turned Wawrinka into a three-time slam champion has thus been passed down through the dynasty of Swedish tennis. Yet where Norman is as phlegmatic as a Scandi-noir detective, Rosengren brings a dash of unscandinavian passion.

“I’m getting 10 years older every match,” said Rosengren, 57, while pointing at his grey hair. “Look at this. I love what I’m doing, but I think every day, when I am sitting there, ‘Why am I doing this?’”

Because Rosengren has a winning mentality that is contagious, like some strain of Swedish flu. During matches, he is up and down faster than the seagulls that swoop over Rod Laver Arena.

“It is good to look over and see the guys in the box are really pumped for you, especially when you get in those close moments at the end of sets,” said Edmund yesterday. “That’s when you can feed off them and become really gritty and tough to beat. At the same time, it has to come internally from yourself, that drive and that firepower.”

The choice of words is interesting. Perhaps Edmund – who is known to be a massive petrolhead – is dreaming about that Ferrari after all.