US Open: the “blossoming” of British tennis
Finally, British tennis has ceased to be a “Murrayled monoculture”, said Simon Briggs in The Daily Telegraph. The US Open has seen an unexpected “blossoming”. For the first time, the Scot was joined in the fourth round of a Grand Slam by another British man, Kyle Edmund; while in the round before, Dan Evans came agonisingly close to beating Stan Wawrinka. And in the women’s competition, Johanna Konta also made the last 16. By the quarter-finals, normal business had resumed – only Murray remained – but that didn’t detract from a rash of “superb victories”.
Edmund has been the real revelation, said Barry Flatman in The Sunday Times. Long tipped as a future star, the 21-year-old has repeatedly “buckled under top-flight pressure”; in June, he crashed out of Wimbledon in the first round. At Flushing Meadows, however, he dispatched two world-class players, beating Richard Gasquet (seeded 13th) and John Isner (20th), before going out to Novak Djokovic. Edmund’s game plan is simple: he tries to dominate with his fearsome forehand, which promises to become “one of the major weapons” of the game. Having achieved his “breakthrough”, he has risen to world No. 55. Evans is two places ahead of him, said Barry Flatman in The Times. Not bad for a player who fell to 772nd last year. The 26-year-old’s talent has never been in question, but he was previously guilty of prioritising nights out over “early-morning practice sessions”. Konta has been the sole disappointment, said Mike Dickson in the Daily Mail. After a busy summer, she looked “sluggish” in the fourth round, and lacked her usual composure. Competition between this crop of British players has lifted standards, said Briggs. They are a “tight-knit group”, who have been brought closer by the Davis Cup and the Olympics. Murray has supported them at “every stage” – training with Edmund and Evans in Miami, putting them up at his flat there. He has grown into “the godfather of British tennis”.