Kyle Edmund feels positive vibes before the Melbourne showdown with Berdych
Kyle Edmund turned 24 a few days ago and he will always remember a year behind him, playing in the semi-final of the Australian Open, winning the first ATP crown and cracking the top-15. The Johannesburg native won 36 matches in 2018 but he was forced to finish the year earlier than expecting, playing his last match in Valencia against Fernando Verdasco in October, just a few days after conquering the maiden ATP crown in Antwerp. He was forced to withdraw from Paris Masters with a left knee injury and he started to work on his comeback for 2019 after well-deserved rest, setting his eyes on more good results in the year ahead of us.
The Briton kicked off the year in Brisbane as the 3rd seed, losing to a qualifier Yasutaka Uchiyama 7-6, 6-4 before deciding to withdraw from the next week's Sydney Internation where he was supposed to be the top seed ahead of Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev. Edmund still felt the pain in the left knee but it was nothing serious, taking a precautionary measure and working on his comeback for the first Grand Slam of the season in Melbourne where he has to defend 720 points after playing in the semi-final in 2018, losing to Marin Cilic in straight sets.
Kyle has been training hard this week and he feels ready to embrace the first challenge at Melbourne Park, facing the two-time Australian Open semi-finalist Tomas Berdych in a tricky opening round. Following a great run 12 months ago, Kyle doesn't want to put too much pressure on himself, focusing on his game and on showing the best tennis against the experienced rival who had a great run in Doha after being sidelined for six months. Not thinking about points or the ranking, Edmund is confident he could catch the rivals in the rest of the season even if he fails to secure a massive amount of points in Melbourne for the second year, recalling that he had won only a few matches in the following months. Kyle could face Rafael Nadal in the fourth round but he has to pass the Berdych test first, in what should be a good indicator of his current form and abilities.
“It’s always good just to come back,” Edmund said. “You remember leaving last year and how it ended and coming back where you did well and playing on certain courts. It is nice to come back. It certainly goes quickly, it’s a lot better than what it was. I’ve been practicing pretty much like my normal schedule. I’m happy the way it’s going and it’s getting better. Things don’t happen overnight, they take time to progress. If it continues to improve then that’s a good sign. I’ll be fine to play. I’ve been playing a lot of hours the last week. I don't think that much about ranking points I have to defend, they are just a number on a sheet of paper.
It definitely doesn’t keep me awake at night. The match against Tomas Berdych is going to be a bit weird because he’s been out injured and you don’t know how they are coming back. But he did well in Doha so you get a feeling that he is playing well. This year’s so long, there are so many more opportunities after this tournament to do well. Last year after Australia it took a while until I won a match again so there is always those sort of silver linings, you could say. Last year I drew Kevin Anderson, this year Berdych. They’re tough matches but you can win them. You’ve just not got to have many expectations.”
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2SNdHCF
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