Andy Murray summed it up with one word. “Wow!” the former world No 1 tweeted within moments of the stunning victory here by Kyle Edmund, his Davis Cup colleague, on Tuesday at the Australian Open.
Playing in his first Grand Slam quarter-final, Edmund beat the world No 3, Grigor Dimitrov, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 with a bold display of controlled big hitting to create an upset to match Novak Djokovic’s defeat 24 hours earlier by Hyeon Chung.
Edmund, who in Thursday’s semi-finals will face the winner of today’s later meeting between Rafael Nadal and Marin Cilic, joins an elite group of British men who have progressed this far in Grand Slam events.
He will be only the sixth British man in the open era – after Roger Taylor, John Lloyd, Greg Rusedski, Tim Henman and Andy Murray – to play in a Grand Slam singles semi-final. The last Briton other than Murray to reach the last four here was Lloyd, who did so in 1977. Murray, Lloyd and Taylor are the only other Britons in the open era who have reached the last four here.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” Edmund said afterwards. “I’m very happy. With these sort of things you’re so emotionally engaged that you don’t really take it in, you don’t enjoy yourself, so just at the end, after a hard match and having played lots of matches so far, I just really tried to enjoy the moment.”
Asked about his new place in British tennis history, Edmund said: “It’s obviously great. You don’t really think of those things when you’re playing. You’re playing tennis, trying to do your best. But for sure, thinking about it, it’s something you’re going to be proud of at some point.
“Of course as a kid you’re just growing up looking up to idols, guys you aspire to be, and when you’re on these type of stages, reaching the last stages of the best tournaments in the world, it’s obviously very pleasing. But of course I want to keep going.”
Edmund said that the interest in him from British media had made him realise “what it feels like to be Andy Murray for the last eight years, or however long it is”.
He explained: “Of course it comes with the territory of playing pressure sport. The better you do, the more attention you get. It’s probably the first time I’ve done well on my own, so there’s more attention there, but you just take it in your stride, you try to embrace it as much as possible. But it’s a good problem to have when you’re winning and getting all that attention. I guess the more I keep winning the better.”
In next Monday’s world rankings list Edmund is expected to climb 23 places to a career-high position of No 26. Should he reach the final, he will even replace Murray as the British No 1.
Henman was in the crowd here to watch Edmund win the biggest match of his life in emphatic fashion. Dimitrov, who claimed the biggest prize of his career when he won the ATP Finals in London in November, enjoyed a wonderful year in 2017 and was being tipped by many as a possible winner of one of this year’s Grand Slam titles.
Edmund, however, looked confident from the start, underlining how well he has done to put behind him the memory of several close matches last year which had escaped from his grasp. The world No 49, who has one of the biggest forehands in the game, hit 46 winners to Dimitrov’s 32, but it was on serve that he had an even bigger advantage.
The Briton hit 13 aces to Dimitrov’s seven, but it was the 26-year-old Bulgarian’s seven double faults that seemed to undermine his confidence. In truth the world No 3 has been in patchy form for most of this year, though his victory over Nick Kyrgios in the fourth round on Sunday evening had suggested that he had turned the corner. He had also won both his previous meetings with Edmund, most recently in Brisbane a fortnight ago.
By making his debut in Rod Laver Arena Edmund moved three-quarters of the way towards a career Grand Slam of appearances in the sport’s four major stadiums. The Briton was beaten by Djokovic in Arthur Ashe Stadium at the US Open in 2016 and by Gael Monfils on Centre Court at Wimbledon last year. Now he has just Court Philippe Chatrier at Roland Garros to complete his collection.
With the sun shining brightly and the temperature a pleasant 22C, the conditions when they walked on court just after 2.30pm were almost perfect. Edmund had made slow starts in three of his first four matches here, but this time he got off to a flier, breaking serve in an opening game in which he hit some big forehands, a fine backhand winner down the line and a textbook winning volley. The start spoke volumes for his confidence.
Dimitrov, however, broke back in the sixth game. From 40-30 up Edmund hit a double fault and then made two successive forehand errors.
At 4-4, nevertheless, Edmund once more. Dimitrov double-faulted to go 15-30 down and then missed a forehand under attack from Edmund’s big hitting. The Bulgarian saved the first break point but on the second Edmund ran round his backhand to hit a monstrous forehand return winner and then converted his second set point in the following game with a service winner.
However, Dimitrov came out fighting at the start of the second set. After taking a 2-0 lead the world No 3 held serve from 0-40 down and served out for the set with something to spare.
Dimitrov retrieved an early break in the third set, but in the eighth game his seventh double fault cost him his serve once again. When Edmund served for the set at 5-3 he went 15-30 down before taking matters into his own hand. A sledgehammer forehand down the line took him to 30-30, another forehand winner took him to set point and a service winner did the rest.
Excitement mounted as Edmund made the first break of the fourth set in the fifth game courtesy of two successive forehand errors, though Dimitrov broke back immediately.
At 3-3 Dimitrov saved a break point when Edmund netted a forehand, but the Briton was not to be denied. With Dimitrov serving at 4-4 the Bulgarian went 15-40 down as Edmund successfully challenged an “in” call on a backhand down the line, Hawk-Eye’s cameras proving that the ball had missed by the tiniest of margins. Two points later Dimitrov’s netted backhand gave the Briton the chance to serve for the match.
At 15-15 in the final game Edmund double-faulted, but he held firm despite the enormous pressure. Instead it was Dimitrov who continued to make the mistakes, the last of them on Edmund’s first match point as a backhand sailed beyond the baseline.
Asked what the keys had been to his victory, Edmund said: “He’s played hard matches. He won a five-set match and then a high-level match against Nick Kyrgios, so I knew it was going to be tough. I had a bit of a dip in the second set. I think it was quite poor tennis at some point. But in the third set I managed to break him right at the end. I had a little blip in the fourth set but held my nerve in that last game and just prayed that last ball was out.”
Edmund also paid tribute to his coaching team of Fredrik Rosengren and Mark Hilton, as well as his trainer, Ian Prangley. “I’m really happy for the team around me,” he said.
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