Encouraging signs for Murray but the honours go to Edmund
At a key moment of last night’s headline match, Colin Beecher leaned forward to speak to the man he is coaching at the Schroders Battle of the Brits. “Kyle Edmund is in the zone now,” Beecher whispered urgently, using his charge’s full name. “Stay in the zone.”
Edmund did exactly that as he defeated Andy Murray on the super tiebreak: 6-7, 7-6, 10-5. Perhaps Dan Evans will have something to say over the next few days, but for now, this result could be seen as a declaration that British tennis has a new top dog.
This might be an unofficial event, with no ranking points and a prizemoney pool that has not even been finalised yet. But all eight players are still bang up for the fight. In the case of these two, Murray had won three of their four previous meetings, with the single reverse coming when he was still hobbling around on his old, arthritic hip.
Edmund is the coming man, though. A semi-finalist at the Australian Open two years ago, he owns the biggest individual weapon on show at this event: a forehand that regularly tops 90mph on the speed gun. Plus, he has used the quiet days of lockdown wisely, piling on an extra four kilos of muscle.
Although Murray seized the first set on the tiebreak, Beecher was on the money when he told Amazon Prime’s broadcasters that “Kyle has overpressed so far, going for way too much”.
As the match wore on, Edmund began to look less skittish, relying on his extra weight of shot to bully his more famous opponent around the court. He finished it with a crescendo of controlled violence.
The result puts Edmund through to the semi-finals with a match to spare, whereas Murray will have to beat James Ward today to reach the knockout stages.
Murray will be annoyed to have let his one-set lead slip away, but there was plenty of encouragement for him to take.
Britain’s greatest-ever player never lost his magical touch or metronomic accuracy, even when he was effectively playing on one leg. But mobility – his greatest gift of all – was compromised.
Now, with his bionic joint looking well-oiled, there are signs that he could have a very decent back end to the season – Covid-19 allowing. “I think I did pretty well,” Murray said. “Much better than yesterday, with how I hit the ball from the back of the court. It would have been nice to come through it, but to be honest, right now I’m not bothered so much about the results.
“I know if my hip’s good my tennis will get better over the next months. If I sharpen up, I’ll be playing at a high level.”
‘I’m not so bothered about results. If my hip’s good, my tennis will get better’