Edmund slumps to fifth straight loss

British tennis will have a new male No 1 in the next week or two, barring a dramatic upsurge in Kyle Edmund’s fortunes. A grim year for Edmund turned even bleaker yesterday when he suffered his fifth successive defeat – 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 to China’s Zhizhen Zhang in Beijing.

Backstage, Edmund has also lost both the coaches who accompanied him in 2018: first Fidde Rosengren, who retired at the end of last season, and Mark Hilton, who departed just before this Asian swing.

Edmund did at least cover the court respectably throughout this 2hr 19min match against the world No 213, which suggests that he is not suffering from the knee issues that have dogged him for much of the past year. Bleak: Kyle Edmund is likely to lose the British No1 position after Beijing defeat

Dan Evans faced a similar challenge yesterday to his fellow Briton: a Chinese wild card ranked just outside the top 200. But in Evans’s case, he eased to a straight-sets win over Zhe Li, earning him a crack at the winner of Gael Monfils’s match with John Isner today. Two more wins and Evans would become British No1 for the first time.

Meanwhile, British No 3 Cameron Norrie also moved into the second round yesterday when his opponent, Christian Garin, retired with an ankle injury, shortly after losing the first set on a tie-break.

Today’s schedule opens soon after 6am BST with Andy Murray taking on eighth seed Matteo Berrettini – the Italian who reached the semi-finals of the recent US Open.

Novak Djokovic has reported fit for the Tokyo Open, only four weeks after pulling out of his own US Open match against Stan Wawrinka because of an injured left shoulder.