Kyle cruises... then collapses
ON the same court where he gave Rafael Nadal an almighty scare two years ago Kyle Edmund last night slumped to a painful defeat, blowing the chance of an excellent start to his campaign on European clay.
the British No 1 led Diego schwartzman by a set and 3-0 in the first round of the Monte Carlo Open, but subsided alarmingly to a 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 defeat on the Riviera.
He hit the ball with suitable belligerence to assume total command before losing twelve of the next 13 games.
the sun went down during the match but Edmund said the slowing conditions were not a factor. ‘It was more a case of him getting more balls back. I had done well up to the middle of the second set and then started making more mistakes.’
His diminutive argentinian opponent plays well on the red dirt and made the last eight of the 2018 French Open, but he should have been put away on a surface which also plays to Edmund’s strengths.
the serve is an aspect which continues to yield too little for the 24-year- old yorkshireman, and that will be one of several things that require work as the tour snakes around Europe over the spring.
Nadal joins the fray tomorrow and he revealed yesterday that his uncle and former long-time coach toni apologised to him after giving an interview that raised serious fears about the champion’s physical health.
Late last month toni Nadal told spanish newspaper El Pais that his nephew ‘is not a tennis player, he’s an injured person who plays tennis’.
‘He apologised to me,’ said the 11-time French Open champion. ‘toni wanted to say it in a positive way, he said it has a lot of value what I am doing, for all the problems that I had.
‘I’m No 1 or 2 in the world and it’s difficult to be where I am being an injured person.
‘Of course I have more problems than almost the rest of my competitors but I’ve been able to manage it well.’