Edmund glad to be back on Centre Court

British No1 faces Spain’s Munar on show court Murray and Williams touted as a doubles act

Will this be the summer of doubles at the All England Club? The year when Wimbledon-watchers pair up and high-five each other after every point?

Perhaps so, because two-time singles champion Andy Murray – who has entered the men’s doubles with the talented Frenchman Pierre-hugues Herbert – remains our most recognisable home hope, even now that he comes equipped with a metal right hip.

But spare a thought for Kyle Edmund, the 30th seed and British No1, who will begin his own campaign this afternoon against Spain’s Jaume Munar. Why are not more people talking about Edmund – who reached the semi-finals of last year’s Australian Open – as a potential challenger, or at least a candidate to reach the second week?

The answer lies in his precarious physical state over the past eight months. Only last October, Edmund was closing in on a top-10 ranking after landing his first ATP title in Antwerp. Since then, he has had his tonsils out and developed a chronic knee injury – while also losing an inspirational coach when “Fidde” Rosengren announced his retirement in February.

Even after reaching the semifinals last week in Eastbourne, Edmund is still languishing at a modest No64 in the so-called “Race to London” – the table showing rankings points accumulated in the 2019 season.

Yet this is a man who can frighten anyone when he finds a groove, as he did during a memorable battle with Novak Djokovic on Centre Court last summer.

Djokovic eventually prevailed, but he admitted afterwards that “Edmund was in form … hitting the ball clean. He played better than me for a set and a half ”.

At the All England Club yesterday, Edmund spoke of his excitement to be back on the same famous slice of turf today. “It was a very nice surprise when I saw that,” he said. “I think if you asked Rafa [Nadal] or someone like that, every time they play on Centre, I don’t think it gets taken for granted. I think it’s a great honour, a great buzz, especially when you know what it feels like to go on it.

“I ended up playing the winner [of the tournament],” added Edmund, when asked about the Djokovic showdown. “So he was playing very well. It was the best atmosphere I’ve been involved in at Wimbledon, for sure. It was my third match on there and I think every time you go on Centre Court or Court No1, you get the feel of it. It’s always in the bank for next time you go on that you have some memories there, how you played on there for the next time.”

These are sentiments that Murray can surely appreciate, even if he has appeared on Wimbledon’s show courts so often that many of the early-round matches have probably blurred together in his mind.

Murray will not enter the men’s doubles tournament until Wednesday at the earliest, but we can expect another couple of days of intrigue over his possible choice of a mixed-doubles partner.

The most newsworthy candidate would be Serena Williams, who has already won seven doubles titles and seven singles titles at the All England Club, and who suggested that she might be available during an enigmatic press conference on Saturday afternoon. Yesterday, Williams’s coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, backed the idea.

“I would say that’s a great move,” Mouratoglou said. “First of all, she loves to play doubles. Second, to play doubles with Andy can bring only positives to her. Andy is great, she likes him. He’s an incredible player, he is super positive. Why not? They have to just both decide and then... let’s do it!”

The call will have to be made by Wednesday, when mixed doubles pairings are obliged to write their names down on the sign-in sheet. In the meantime, Murray seems to be finding a certain amusement in daily life as a bionic man.

“I have taken two flights since the operation,” he told reporters at the weekend. “It [the airport metal detector] went off both times.

“I didn’t actually think about it before because I don’t really remember that it’s in there now. I went through, it went off and I was like, ‘Oh for god’s sake’. And then when I got through, my wife was like, ‘You know that’s because of your hip’. I was like, ‘Oh f---, of course’.

“Bob Bryan [the doubles champion who has undergone the same operation] was telling me that you can get a medical certificate.

“But I’m not going to walk around with that to say that I have got a metal hip and show that’s why I am setting the detector off,” Murray added.