OVER TO YOU KYLE
British No3 can secure Cup victory
KYLE EDMUND is only 21 and in his second Davis Cup tie but he will need to come of age very quickly in this competition’s rarefied atmosphere today.
The British No3 from Humberside will be charged with propelling Great Britain into the semi-finals when he steps on court to face acting Serbian No1 Dusan Lajovic, with his team 2-1 up and within one point of victory.
Andy Murray, sitting on the bench as a non-playing supporter, will be only one peculiarity. If yesterday is anything to go by Edmund will be faced with a soundtrack of Serbian war anthems at every changeover and a noisy crowd as he tries to beat a more seasoned opponent.
Dominic Inglot and Jamie Murray presented him with the task when they overcame the scratch pairing of Nenad Zimonjic and Filip Krajinovic 6-1, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4. It became a cloyingly tense doubles encounter after they breezed through the opener, with Serbia getting a penalty for crowd noise at the death.
Should world No81 Lajovic prevail this afternoon then it will come down to a battle of the desperately out of form, between representatives of two sides depleted by injuries and voluntary absences. James Ward will take on either the distinctly rusty former world top-10 player Janko Tipsarevic, or the useful Krajinovic, who has not played singles in more than two months.
It may not be pretty, especially on the sometimes treacherous temporary clay court laid at the dramatic Tasmajdan arena, which has taken something of a pounding from the heavy rain of the past two days, although that gave way to sunshine yesterday afternoon.
British captain Leon Smith is aware of the test awaiting Edmund, while knowing he is a far more natural clay courter than Ward. ‘It is new territory for him but he has had that big moment of playing in the Davis Cup final last year,’ said Smith. ‘Kyle is very level headed, grounded and methodical in his approach and he is an established tour player now.
‘The way he handled his first match here in winning will help. I’m sure Andy [Murray] will help in some way as well. I thought Lajovic was good today so it will be tough, it’s a sort of 50-50 match.’
With his illustrious brother taking the role of cheerleader beneath hundreds of British fans in the crowd, Jamie had earlier just about held steady enough to see off the v eteran Zimonjic and his rookie partner, who played above themselves.
As the powerful Inglot struggled with his returns, GB missed four break points in the second set before Zimonjic took control of the tiebreak to claim it 7-2.
It took a double fault on the sixth break point of the seventh game in the third set to make the breakthrough and then some sympathetic umpiring from Frenchman Pascal Maria to help tie the match up at the end.
At deuce on second serve at 5-4 the crowd were penalised for calling out during Inglot’s action and a first serve was awarded, much to the disgust of the Serbian team, and the Chiswick man mountain closed it out from there.
Ward had earlier been all at sea against Lajovic, his 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 loss not auguring well if it goes to a fifth and decisive rubber today.
Now down to 240 in the world, the British player had his movement exposed on a heavy surface that was the opposite of what he would have liked. Certainly he could not make up a gap in clay court class against a player good enough to make the last 16 during the French Open at Roland Garros two years ago.
Ward was also handicapped by the uncharacteristic error of judgment from Smith in not including him in this squad in the first place, in the misplaced hope that Andy Murray would end up playing.
Originally left out, Ward continued practising on grass for this week’s Rhode Island event after losing to Novak Djokovic in the first round at Wimbledon. He only switched to clay a week last Thursday when it became predictably clear that Murray would not risk the breakneck switch from Wimbledon to the brown dirt.
It would not have been the deciding factor yesterday, but it might yet be a difference today — if it comes down to it.