Kyle Edmund beats Denis Istomin to reach Australian Open third round for first time
Written by News on 17/01/2018
Kyle Edmund backed up his big upset of Kevin Anderson by routing Denis Istomin to reach the third round of the Australian Open for the first time.
The British No 2 oozed confidence in baking conditions at Melbourne Park, not facing a single break point in a 6-2 6-2 6-4 victory to set up a clash with Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili.
“I’m playing well. I’m happy with where I’m at in my game, stuff I’m working on,” said Edmund.
“In terms of today, I got good confidence from the match against [Kevin] Anderson. I knew going into this match physically I was good, the way I’m hitting the ball. If he was going to beat me today, I knew I was going to put up a good fight.
“Today was a good, professional performance, I did what I needed to do. I held my concentration well. I was just really pleased, especially with the heat today. To get on and off is good.”
Edmund’s section of the draw was blown wide open on day one by defeats for seeds Anderson, Jack Sock, Lucas Pouille and Philipp Kohlschreiber, and it is a golden opportunity for one of the players remaining to reach a grand slam quarter-final.
Edmund, who is now the second-highest ranked player in the section behind Yuichi Sugita of Japan, was hugely satisfied with the way he addressed previous weaknesses in the victory over Anderson, particularly the steel he showed at big moments.
The world No 49 did not allow Istomin the chance to put any pressure on whatsoever as Edmund set about dismantling the player who at the same stage 12 months ago knocked out Novak Djokovic in one of the great tennis upsets.
Two breaks gave Edmund the opening set, with Istomin taking a lengthy injury time-out at the changeover to have his left ankle taped.
But Edmund remained totally focused and it was a similar story in the second set, the 23-year-old dominating on serve – he lost only three points on his first delivery all match – and picking off his opponent with his huge forehand.
Istomin at least kept the damage to a single break in the third set but there was never any question of a comeback from the Uzbek and Edmund wrapped up victory in an hour and 29 minutes.
Edmund’s next opponent Basilashvili is ranked 12 places below him and had never won a match at the Australian Open before this year. He lost his only previous encounter with the Yorkshireman at the French Open in 2016.
Edmund added: “He’s obviously a very aggressive player. He takes swings at the ball. He has errors, but he has lots of winners. You just have to accept that and expect that when you play him, that he’s going to hit some winners.”
(c) Sky News 2018: Kyle Edmund beats Denis Istomin to reach Australian Open third round for first time
