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Kyle Edmund, Britain’s lone representative in the men’s draw in the absence of the injured Andy Murray, soaked up 35 aces from one of the biggest servers in the game, Kevin Anderson, to put the 2017 US Open finalist out of the Australian Open in five enthralling sets on day one.
It was probably the best win of his young career, given the context, the second time in four visits here he has got out of the first round and only his seventh success in 29 matches against a top-20 opponent. Alongside the earlier exit of Venus Williams, beaten by Belinda Bencic in three sets, it rocked a tournament already shaping as one of several potential upsets.
Kyle Edmund took nearly four hours to beat Kevin Anderson on Showcourt 3. Photograph: Mike Frey/BPI/REX/Shutterstock
In a match of hard-hit groundstrokes and rocket serves on Showcourt No3, Edmund, ranked 49 in the world, held his shape and his nerve during a tussle that lasted a minute under four hours to beat the 11th seed 6-7 (4), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
The pattern was set early. Anderson stood up to a sustained onslaught to win a 23-shot rally in his opening service game, a hint that this was going to be an uncompromising struggle along the lines of their only previous meeting, in the third round of the French Open last summer, when the South African won a tight five-setter.
Edmund saved 12 of 15 break points in that match, testimony to his fighting spirit, but it is his big serve that he still needs to bring under control. Chasing chalk, as they used to say in the old days on grass, he always risks erring on the wrong side. He was strong under pressure for 1-1, hit a more satisfying rhythm in the fourth game, holding to love, and Anderson replied in kind for 4-3, closing with his fifth ace.
Anderson got to within two points of taking the set in the 12th game, but Edmund forced the tie-break with a third ace and a cool, clipped forehand into the ad corner. In the shootout, Anderson pounced on an under-powered second serve, sealing it at the net just under the hour with a punched forehand.
There wasn’t a lot in it on the scoreboard, but Anderson won his 25th straight point on serve with consecutive aces at the start of the second. Edmund needed a breakthrough – and it arrived after an hour and 23 minutes when he forced the first break of the match to lead 4-2. He finished the fightback in style, with a trademark forehand into space in the ad corner again. Now we had a match.
The match was going along attritional lines when Anderson called for courtside medical attention after the seventh game – just before rain interrupted play with Edmund about to serve on his third deuce point at 3-4. When they resumed, he pushed a forehand wide and Anderson served out the set for a 2-1 lead
Edmund hit back with an early break in the fourth, however, and held his nerve in some tense exchanges to level at two sets apiece.
The deciding frame was as tough as the preceding four for 23-year-old Edmund, who dropped serve after three deuce points to trail 0-2 – but broke back immediately, with a rasping crosscourt forehand, then held. In the fight to the finish line both players hit with unrelenting power.
The effort began to tell on Edmund, who had the trainer on after five games to ease pain in his serving shoulder. From there, however, he steeled himself to the task, broke again and held to clinch a victory he will remember for a long time.
“Kyle’s a great competitor,” Anderson said later. “He’s always very dangerous. I felt he hit it extremely well today, lots of winners very few errors on that side [27 to his own 44], also in tricky conditions. The whole thing comes down to one or two points. Total points were pretty much within a point [155-154 to Edmund].
“I had a lot of break points, couldn’t convert on them [2/11], was up a break in the fifth. That was pretty disappointing, but it felt like he played a pretty good game that next game; I didn’t feel like I did too much wrong.”
Edmund next plays – for the first time – world No60 Denis Istomin, who earlier beat the French doubles specialist, Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-2, 6-1, 5-7, 7-6 (3) in three hours on Court 13.
(GUARDIAN)
