A hard court lesson for Kyle Edmund

Over the course of the 81-minute match against Vasek Pospisil,a man ranked 344 places above him,Edmund used his 6’ 3’’ frame to great effect. With muscular arms,he fired down 200 plus kmph serves aplenty. And if and when those serves came back,Edmund would spread his tree-trunk sized chest and thump it back harder and faster. All this caused the fifth seed a whole lot of physical and emotional pain.

Two shirt changes,three double faults,four foot faults,five wrong challenges and countless unforced errors had Pospisil questioning his game. Yet,the 23-year old Canadian,one of the biggest movers up the rankings in 2013,emerged victorious in straight sets — 6-3,7-5. Why? Because unlike Edmund,who found his range as the game progressed,Pospisil struck twice when it mattered. Right at the beginning and right at the end.

Slow start

Edmund was down 3-0 in about three minutes,winning a sum total of three points until that moment. The sparse but noisy crowd present in the terraces didn’t blame him. They were told well in advance that he had no experience on this surface whatsoever. But 3-0,with Pospisil serving first,was still just the matter of one break of serve. And boy was Pospisil glad that he had broken his opponent early.

To begin the fourth game,the 18-year old caused the chatter in the stands to cease momentarily. An ace, clocked at 211 kmph,darted past Pospisil’s outstretched forehand on the deuce court. 15-0. On the ad court, he then aimed for his backhand with a wide serve at 207 clicks. 30-0. The backhand was in Edmund’s crosswires again,with a thunderous ace down the T. 40-0. And just when you thought that here was a kid who could serve but not rally,Edmund won the game after 13 shots,thanks to a Pospisil unforced error.

Soon,the hiccups started. In the seventh game,Pospisil found himself losing points on serve. At 15-30 while serving 4-2 in the set,the Canadian looked to kick his second serve towards Edmund’s backhand. The ball kissed the tape and missed the service box rather visibly. Pospisil challenged,the spectators ‘ooohed’ and the ball was well out. 15-40.

Had Edmund capitalised on either of the two break points,who is to say how the first set would’ve ended. Perhaps it would have played out just like the second set did.

Close call

Serving first this time around,Edmund made his new found form count on this new found surface. Until 3-all, Edmund lost four points on serve. Until 3-all,each of Pospisil’s service games were won after a struggle at deuce. The seventh game didn’t begin well for the Brit. A double fault and two forehand return errors saw him staring at 0-40. Pospisil,clearly shaken,had fist pumped each of those mistakes. But Edmund showed that he wasn’t stirred with five perfect serves to make it 4-3. This set was going to be a long one.

The match too perhaps would’ve gone down the same route had Pospisil’s finishing stroke in the ninth game of the set been an inch to the left. Serving to stay in the set at 4-5,locked at 30-30,the Canadian yanked his forehand crosscourt a tad too hard. The ball,seemingly sailing long,dropped magically to catch the tramline by a few fuzzy hair follicles. Pospisil won the next point to make it 5-5 and looked up at the skies for divine intervention.

It came in the form of another 0-40 on serve at 5-5,Edmund having seemingly been disturbed during one of his wayward serves by a bat. And when he shanked a forehand long to allow Pospisil to serve for the match,the Canadian ensured that the second break of serve counted as much as the first,procured what seemed to be a lifetime ago.

Other results: Dudi Sela bt Lukas Lacko 6-4,6-2,Jiri Vesely bt Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 7-5,6-2

Today’s matches: Pablo Carreno Busta vs Yuki Bhambri,Somdev Devvarman vs Ramkumar Ramanathan,Rohan Bopanna-Aisam-ul Haq Qureshi vs Benoit Paire-Stanislas Wawrinka

(Live on Ten Sports,5pm onwards)