Bedene flies flag for Britain as he reaches last eight

ALJAZ BEDENE is the last British player standing after Naomi Broady and Kyle Edmund went out in the quarter-finals of their Tour events. Broady went down in Auckland while last night Edmund was outslugged 6-3, 6-2 by heavy-hitting world No 6 Tomas Berdych at the Qatar Open. Berdych was flattered by the scoreline in their late-evening encounter and the run by the 20-year-old from Yorkshire should now embed him inside the world’s top 100. Broady has come within sight of gaining direct entry into the Grand Slams, despite her sometimes stormy run at the ASB Classic coming to an end. The 25-year-old from Stockport went down to much-touted American Sloane Stephens 7-6, 6-3 in her quarter-final, having progressed through the qualifying event to beat Ana Ivanovic and win a fiery second-round match against Jelena Ostapenko. The big-serving GB No 3 had two set points in the opener but lost the tiebreak 8-6 against one of the USA’s top prospects. With her ranking likely to nudge up to around 110, she is not

far off having to avoid qualifying for the majors. That, however, is what she will need to do next week to make the Australian Open. British men’s No 2 Bedene (left) must try to replicate or improve this week on his effort from 12 months ago of reaching the final of the Chennai Open in India. Yesterday he laboured against Italian journeyman Luca Vanni before winning 5-7, 6-3, 6-4. He faces Indian Ramkumar Ramanathan in today’s quarter-final.