Edmund passes test to sink Spanish sub Lopez
NOTHING has been able to derail Kyle Edmund this week, not even the surprise of finding his opponent in last night’s opening rubber of the Davis Cup semi- final had been changed at the last minute.
The 24- year- old Yorkshireman braved an intimidating crowd at the Caja Magica to put Great Britain 1-0 up by seeing off Spain’s last-gasp replacement Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 7-6 with his third win in three days.
With national hero Rafael Nadal crushing Dan Evans 6-4, 6-0 before a feverish crowd of 12,500, the match went to a doubles rubber to decide who would face Canada in today’s final.
Edmund’s opponent Lopez, a netrushing l efthander, had been announced shortly before the start as a replacement for right-handed baseliner Pablo Carreno Busta, who his team claim failed a fitness test.
Teams are allowed to make a switch up to an hour beforehand, but this news broke five minutes before Carreno-Busta walked on court. Such late changes are only allowed in the case of unforeseen ailments affecting a selected player.
A spokesman for the International Tennis Federation said the move was permitted after CarrenoBusta’s leg was examined by an independent doctor. If the whole thing was a ruse to wrongfoot GB’s third-ranked player it did not work, with Edmund making an electric start from which the veteran southpaw could not recover.
The Briton certainly thought the Spanish were not acting in the spirit of the rules with the shift of personnel: ‘Busta actually came to warm up on the bike then two minutes l ater he l eft,’ he said. ‘ I said straightaway ‘‘Something’s a bit weird there’’. I think they knew what was going on but they just sort of went to the rules, they could do that.
‘As soon as I found out, there’s no point trying to argue it, Feli is the guy I was playing. I was smiling about it when I got told, sort of like, ‘‘OK, yeah, I see what’s going on’’. I just accepted it really quickly.
‘Throughout this week, my tennis hasn’t been a problem, but when you come in different situations it can sometimes do funny things.
‘I stayed focused. I concentrated on my game, kept believing in my game, kept going after my strokes. So to control my way through and play a good breaker, it was a very good performance.’
Edmund has helped Britain make l i ght o f Andy Murray bei ng benched as he works his way back to optimum fitness. While Lopez was much more dangerous in the second set, the Brit held his nerve, winning the tiebreak 7-3 to close the match out.
Edmund, whose coaching situation has been sorted out by his link with Argentine Franco Davin, has saved the best of what has been a difficult year until last. He has not played as well as this since he occupied the world’s top 15.
The altitude of Madrid adds to the firepower in his game, and Lopez struggled to control the firepower ranged at him.
While home support dominated there were 1,000 British fans in the crowd thanks to a remarkable ticket operation carried out by the Lawn Tennis Association that was sparked by an Andy Murray social media post on Friday night. The LTA, which has received £580,000 due to the team reaching the last four, negotiated with organisers to buy 800 tickets worth around £50,000 to distribute to GB fans.
Staff worked through the night to respond to enquiries received via an email address, with everything gone by 11am yesterday morning.
It is a hazard of this new format that many punters have to act at the last minute if they want to support their team, and realistically only the British have the resources to manage such a project.
Meanwhile the tournament’s high profile promoter Gerard Pique was in attendance after hotfooting it back from his day job as a defender for Barcelona. He played in their 2-1 win over Leganes, which is conveniently situated only just outside the Spanish capital.
He and colleagues at his sports marketing company Kosmos are already planning changes to the event for next year, learning from mistakes of this first week.
Canada’s surprisingly large contingent of fans have been rewarded by a remarkable effort from young gun Denis Shapovalov and 2014 Wimbledon quarter-finalist Vasek Pospisil.