Children in the hometown of Kyle Edmund got behind Britain’s new tennis sensation today as he got off to a shaky start in the Australian Open semi-final.
Tennis fans across Britain are expectant this morning for the country’s latest hope as Edmund engages in a David and Goliath showdown against Croatian Marin Cilic.
Edmund lost the opening set of his maiden grand slam semi-final 6-2 to the sixth seed, leaving the young 23-year-old Yorkshireman with plenty of work to do.
There are also concerns that Edmund is struggling with an injury after he asked for a three-minute medical timeout at the end of the first set in Melbourne.
Back in Britain at Pocklington Prep School, where Edmund was a sports-mad pupil from 2002 to 2006, children made posters to show their support to their local hero.
British tennis player Kyle Edmund plays a forehand return to Croatia’s Marin Cilic during their men’s singles semi-finals match on day 11 of the Australian Open in Melbourne today
Pocklington Prep School students in East Yorkshire watch Edmund play Cilic this morning
Prep School students hold masks of Edmund as they prepare to watch him play Cilic today
Photographs showed children sitting in the school hall in the East Yorkshire market town to watch the match and holding masks with Edmund’s face on.
Teachers have reported a wave of excitement among staff and children at the school, especially since Edmund’s defeat of third seed Grigor Dimitrov.
They said they remembered Edmund, who was tennis champion for three years running, as a ‘pleasant, quiet and shy boy who had a steely determination to win’.
Neither of Edmund’s parents are in Australia with him, as his mother joins thousands of Brits watching at home while his father is on business in US.
Edmund’s parents Steven, 49, and Denise, 50, are keen supporters of his career and will be in Marbella next week for Britain’s Davis Cup tie against Spain.
Edmund is pictured with his parents, Steven and Denise, at his sister Kelly’s graduation
Drama on court as Edmund has an angry confrontation with umpire
There was high drama on court during the match today as Kyle Edmund had an angry confrontation with the umpire over a decision.
The ball was called wide as he went to return a Marin Cilic serve. The return then went wide, Cilic challenged it and HawkEye found it was in – on the line.
The point was awarded to the Croat, leaving the British number two furious. ‘Get the referee, that’s rubbish,’ he said. ‘Get the referee, I’m not having it.’
The umpire insisted that the call did not affect his shot, but Edmund argued that he played the shot just as the line judge called out.
After a long chat nothing changed, but it fired him up as he unleashed a monster forehand and Cilic netted.
Edmund points the figure as he has an angry confrontation with an official in the match
The point was awarded to his Croat opponent, leaving the British number two furious
JANUARY 25, 2018
Drama on court as Edmund has an angry confrontation with umpire
There was high drama on court during the match today as Kyle Edmund had an angry confrontation with the umpire over a decision.
The ball was called wide as he went to return a Marin Cilic serve. The return then went wide, Cilic challenged it and HawkEye found it was in – on the line.
The point was awarded to the Croat, leaving the British number two furious. ‘Get the referee, that’s rubbish,’ he said. ‘Get the referee, I’m not having it.’
The umpire insisted that the call did not affect his shot, but Edmund argued that he played the shot just as the line judge called out.
After a long chat nothing changed, but it fired him up as he unleashed a monster forehand and Cilic netted.
Edmund points the figure as he has an angry confrontation with an official in the match
The point was awarded to his Croat opponent, leaving the British number two furious
JANUARY 25, 2018
But they have had to follow their son’s remarkable progress on TV so far and are not making a last-minute dash Down Under – at least not yet.
Edmund said: ‘Every day I Facetime them after the match and see the family dog – he’s always doing something. Maybe we’ll see how this match goes.
‘But at the minute they’re just at home. I’ve got family in South Africa, they’re constantly texting and waking up early to watch, so everyone’s really supporting me.’
Edmund is getting a sense of the excitement his Australian Open run is causing back home while he keeps his focus firmly on today’s semi-final against Marin Cilic.
He has stunningly emerged as a contender this fortnight, beating US Open finalist Kevin Anderson in the first round and third seed Grigor Dimitrov in the quarter-finals.
Edmund (pictured today) has stunningly emerged as a contender at the event this fortnight
Edmund in action against Cilic during the men’s semifinal match at the Australian Open today
Edmund joked after his victory over Dimitrov that he now knows how British number one Andy Murray feels after finding himself in the spotlight.
‘It’s obviously been a lot more attention than I usually get, just loads more text messages, messages on social media,’ he said.
‘I know my family have been really busy with stuff there. My mate that runs the local tennis club, he’s been asked questions, school teachers and things.
‘The reaction has been amazing. But I’m really just trying to block that out because I’m still playing in the tournament. I have a really good chance, I’m playing well, it’s going to be a great experience.’
Edmund is not short of support in Australia, led by coach Fredrik Rosengren, who has been trying to help his charge deal with everything on and off the court.
Croatia’s Marin Cilic in action against Edmund today during their singles semi-finals match
A win over Cilic (above, today) would see Edmund surpass Andy Murray as British number one
The 57-year-old, one of the most experienced coaches in the business, said: ‘I think he realised more and more that his life changed. I hope he enjoys it a lot. This comes with the success.
‘It will help him a lot with his self-esteem to improve as a person to handle all these things. He’s a very down-to-earth, polite guy so I’m not expecting him running tomorrow and buying a Ferrari.
‘He’s not that kind of guy. He’s very humble. But at the same time I think it’s very good for his personality to have this feeling that he’s so good in something.’
Rosengren has been calling on his fellow Swede and former Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson to hit with Edmund in practice and urging him to embrace the moment.
‘Yesterday we had a great morning, laughing a lot,’ said Rosengren. ‘It was so relaxed, first time he was hitting on centre court, first time he’s playing quarter-final, playing number three in the world, the way he handled it was unbelievable for me.
His success is an immense source of pride for his company director father Steven, mother Denise (right), who runs a small payroll business, and 21-year-old sister Kelly (left and right)
‘But even if he’d have lost yesterday, I told him to go in there with the eyes (open), the chest out and try to enjoy, and I was so happy when I saw him walk on court. I said to him after, even if you had been killed yesterday, that was the first thing. This is something we work on – take the stage, be the man.
‘Everything we talked about before the match, he did from the first point. I am the happiest guy because I am thinking about the future, not only this match.’
Cilic is through to the semi-finals for the second time in Melbourne after outlasting Rafael Nadal, who retired with a hip muscle problem in the fifth set of their clash.
The 29-year-old lost to Britain’s Dan Evans in the first round here last season but is playing at a different level now and has not been beaten by a player ranked as low as world number 49 Edmund since then.
His sister Kelly (pictured together when they were children) celebrated her big brother’s quarter-final victory by retweeting pictures and videos of the moment he beat Dimitrov
Edmund beat Grigor Dimitrov on Tuesday to reach the Australian Open semi-finals
Edmund is looking to join select British company, with only Andy Murray and John Lloyd having reached the men’s final here in the Open era, while victory over Cilic would see Edmund surpass Murray as British number one.
The pair have met once before, in Shanghai last October, when Cilic won in two tight sets.
Edmund said: ‘It’s a shame that Rafa had a problem. For me either way it was going to be a tough match. The fact that I’m facing Marin, it will be a great opportunity for me.
‘I guess I have that little bit of a taste of being on court with him. The place I’m in now is really good so, what I’ve been doing, I’ll just try and carry on with that.’
Kyle Edmund’s teachers share memories of tennis star… including cricket prowess and time he smashed a six through the staff room window
BY MIKE KEEGAN FOR THE DAILY MAIL
At Kyle Edmund’s old school, the state-run Beverley Grammar in the East Yorkshire market town, head teacher Gavin Chappell is worried about the state of the current courts.
‘They are grass and often unplayable,’ he says. ‘We’re actually trying to raise money for artificial courts at the moment.’
In the sports hall, Chappell points out a board which lists alumni who have represented their countries at sport.
Kyle Edmund was a popular pupil at school and never boasted about his tennis ability
Alongside Edmund, ex-Leeds United and England goalkeeper Paul Robinson features, as does ex-England cricketer Neil Mallender.
Rebecca Taylor, 38, taught Edmund religion.
‘He was the perfect student – popular but never cocky,’ she remembers. ‘He was playing tennis before and after school but he always did his homework to an impeccable standard.
I remember in particular a visit to a mosque and a leaflet we asked them to produce on the Muslim faith. His was immaculate, he always went the extra mile and was bright as a button. When he told us he was leaving to go and play tennis we were all upset.’
Edmund has made it through to the semi-finals of the Australian Open in Melbourne
Sam Wright, 23, is a former pupil who returned to work at the school. He was in Edmund’s class and remembers a ‘shy but determined lad’.
‘We had no idea he was that good at tennis because he would never boast about it,’ Wright says. ‘We’re all texting each other now about how well he is doing.’
They are slightly more deadpan about Edmund’s success at the Beverley and East Riding Lawn Tennis Club, where the 23-year-old first picked up a tennis racket when his mum Denise took him to a Saturday kids’ club.
Secretary David Beckett points to a black and white picture of a serious-looking man on the wall of the compact clubhouse.
Edmund left school early to pursue tennis full-time and his efforts have been rewarded
‘That is J Colin Gregory,’ he says. ‘He won the Australian Open in 1929 and was a member here. If Kyle goes all the way, I can’t imagine too many clubs will be able to boast two members who have won it.’
They have one standout sporting memory of Kyle Edmund at the £14,000-a-year Pocklington School, which Edmund attended before moving to Beverley Grammar.
In 2005, the Under 11 cricket team were facing Bramcote School from Scarborough. Edmund strode out to bat. Within 12 overs of schoolboy carnage he had smashed 70 not out – and the window of the staff room.
‘The ball was still rising when it came through the glass,’ recalls head of sport Russell Parker, 51. ‘He was peppering the school building’.
Edmund has developed into a world class tennis player but was a talented cricketer at school
Such was the unexpected nature of the youngster’s assault, that they subsequently moved cricket matches to another pitch a safe distance away.
And Edmund’s bowling figures that day? Three overs, two maidens and three wickets for one run.
‘His hand eye co-ordination was incredible and he saw the ball like a beachball,’ Parker adds. ‘And when he bowled he was spinning it, varying his pace. We thought he would go on to be a professional cricketer.’
At the Edmunds’ large, detached home in the rural village of Tickton, the family’s dog walker is returning Jack Russell, Mylo. A Dail Mail reader, she says Edmund’s mum is ‘lost for words and extremely proud’ about her son’s success.
The 23-year-old has always possessed incredible hand-eye co-ordination
At the end of the lane, sub postmaster John Greenwood sits behind his plastic screen at the Post Office.
‘A lovely lad,’ he says of Edmund. ‘You’d never see him in here for sweets although his dad came in once to send his Davis Cup suit down to London for him.’
Discussion turns to where, if the famous son of Tickton makes it, they will watch the final.
‘There’s the New Inn or the Crown,’ says Greenwood. ‘We’ll probably watch it in there because they have the best telly.’