By Ros Satar, at Wimbledon
- Kyle Edmund will be the sole singles representative as he reached the third round for the first time
- Johanna Konta set to drop out of the Top 40 after second round loss
- Some promising results for the younger players coming up
WIMBLEDON, UK – Kyle Edmund will carry the flag alone in the singles at Wimbledon as a bumper field of Brits thins out after the second round.
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The British men’s No. 1 Kyle Edmund was the sole survivor in the Wimbledon Singles tournaments as a field of 12 was whittled down to just him at the end of the second round.
His straight sets win over a second qualifier, Bradley Klahn was the high point in a day where the women’s British no, 1 and last year’s semi-finalist Johanna Konta came up against an inspired two-time quarter-finalist in Dominika Cibulkova.
READ MORE | Wimbledon 2018 | Konta ousted in second round by Cibulkova ‘perfect storm’
Wimbledon 2018 | Konta ousted in second round by Cibulkova ‘perfect storm’
How did the Brits do?
Round 1
- Liam Broady [WC]
- Naomi Broady [WC]
- Jay Clarke [WC]
- Harriet Dart [WC]
- Katy Dunne [WC]
- Cameron Norrie
- Gabriella Taylor [WC]
- Heather Watson
Round 2
- Katie Boulter [WC]
- Johanna Konta [22]
- Katie Swan [WC]
Kyle Edmund [21] v Novak Djokovic [12] | H2H: Djokovic leads 3-1
British men’s No. 1 Kyle Edmund already has had his best performance at Wimbledon, and will be hoping the form he showed on his favourite surface of clay at the Madrid Masters earlier this year carries him through to another win over Novak Djokovic.
For Djokovic, perhaps the clay court season came a little too soon. After unsuccessfully trying to put off surgery for a lingering elbow injury, his frustration at trying to regain his form was evident throughout the clay court season, culminating in an exit against Marco Cecchinato in the Roland Garros quarter-final.
The grass court season has been another matter. He could not quite get over the line at Queen’s where he took a wild-card, but he finds himself in the stacked lower half of the draw, along with Rafael Nadal, Nick Kyrgios and Juan Martin Del Potro – all demonstrating some solid form.
Of course, before that he will face Edmund, who knows that this is no Madrid. After his convincing win over two qualifiers, the Brit finds himself in the third round for the first time, but against a familiar foe.
Edmund said, after his match, about the up-coming clash: “Playing Djokovic is always tough. For sure, when you beat someone, it always gives you that confidence, for sure the belief that you can beat them. I remember playing reasonably well that day. It was a mentally a good thing for me.
“He’s obviously playing well, winning pretty comfortably both matches. We’ll see. Every match is different. The occasion. He’s one of the best players in the world, one of the best players of all time. For sure, there’s always that massive respect. I’m just going to go out there and do my best. See what happens.”
There are, of course, significant differences between the zippy altitude in Madrid and playing on a completely different surface, albeit under some unseasonably hot weather conditions.
Edmund continued: “The court’s obviously a little bit quicker. Movement’s a big difference compared to altitude in Madrid to here. I mean, it’s a tough one to really say until I think I get out there and feel the match, the rhythm of it.
“I feel with Novak, there’s more of an opportunity to do that because he obviously likes to be at the back of the court, use his strengths, which is movement and sort of out-manoeuvring players.
“There’s so many things with Novak that he does so well. He’s one of the best movers in the game. You think about that. You can think too much about it.”
Djokovic is fast establishing himself as one of main contenders in the second half of the draw, and quite possibly the favourite to challenge Roger Federer for the title next Sunday. There has been a lot of improvement in Edmund’s game, not to mention his confidence over the whole of this year.
This is surface that suits Djokovic a little bit more, but Edmund could be the one to test the three-time Wimbledon champion.
Prediction: Djokovic in four sets.
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