MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Britain’s Kyle Edmund overcame Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili and temperatures well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in a brutal three-and-a-half hour contest to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open for the first time on Friday.
The 23-year-old Yorkshireman, the only Briton in the men’s draw in the absence of Andy Murray, mixed 70 winners with 68 unforced errors to prevail 7-6(0) 3-6 4-6 6-0 7-5 in a topsy-turvy contest on court two.
The match turned when world number 49 Edmund, having lost the second and third sets, outlasted Basilashvili in an extraordinary 20-minute game featuring 15 deuces to take a 2-0 lead at the start of the fourth.
The deciding set went with serve until two winners and a Basilashvili double fault gave Edmund his 27th break point, which he converted to set up a fourth round clash against Ivo Karlovic or Andreas Seppi.
Reporting by Nick Mulvenney in Sydney, editing by Amlan Chakraborty