Kyle Edmund

Early and personal life

Edmund was born in South Africa, but moved to Britain when he was three and grew up in the village of Tickton near Beverley, East Yorkshire.

Initially cricket and swimming were his main childhood pursuits, but he switched to tennis at 10 after lessons at the David Lloyd Racquet and Fitness Club in Hull with coach Richard Plews. He was educated at Pocklington School and Beverley Grammar School and by the age of 13 moved to Cannons in Hull to train with John Black. At 14, he moved with John Black to train at Win Tennis, based at the National Sports Centre in Bisham Abbey. When he was nearly 17, he based himself at the Lawn Tennis Association’s National Training Centre in Roehampton to be coached by Colin Beecher, returning to see his family at weekends.

His parents, Steven, a director of a renewable energy company, and Denise invested tens of thousands into their son’s tennis until the LTA provided funding through Aegon that took care of travel and coaching. At home, Edmund trains at the Beverley and East Riding Lawn Tennis Club.

Kyle Edmund is sometimes referred to as "Kedders".

2011

Edmund made his first breakthrough on the Junior circuit in 2011, when he reached the semifinals of the US Open boys' singles event, where he was defeated by top seed and eventual runner-up Jiří Veselý of the Czech Republic.

Playing in the Great Britain Under 16 boys team, with Evan Hoyt and Luke Bambridge, they won the European Summer Cup defeating Italy in the final.

Great Britain won the Junior Davis Cup tournament for the first time after beating Italy in the final in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. Coached by Greg Rusedski, the team of Edmund, Evan Hoyt and Luke Bambridge justified their top seeding in the event.

2012

The following year he won his first junior Grand Slam title, at the boys' doubles event of the US Open, partnered by Portuguese player Frederico Ferreira Silva. The two defeated Australian duo Nick Kyrgios and Jordan Thompson in the final, after losing the first set. Edmund reached a career high of No. 8 in the combined ITF junior rankings in January 2012, reaching at least the quarterfinals of all four junior slams in singles.

2013

At the French Open, Edmund and Silva won their second Grand Slam title, defeating Chilean pair Christian Garín and Nicolás Jarry in the final.

2010–2011

Edmund began on the ITF Futures circuit in April 2010 at the Great Britain F5 in Bournemouth, losing the first qualifier match. It was a full year before Edmund played another Futures, again at the Great Britain F5 in Bournemouth, this time as a wild card in the main draw, but was beaten in the first round.

2012

After playing 18 Futures events, in October Edmund won his first tournament in Birmingham, Alabama, US.

2013

Edmund played in his first ATP tour match in June when he was awarded a Wildcard for the annual Queen's Club tournament in London, losing to Slovenian Grega Zemlja, however that didn't dent his confidence as he then won his first senior match at the Aegon International in Eastbourne. Following a wildcard entrance into the tournament, he defeated the world No. 82 Kenny de Schepper, ranked 360 places above him, in straight sets. Kyle then lost two close sets to world No. 17 Gilles Simon, both completed in tie-breaks.

At Wimbledon, his first senior appearance at a Grand Slam tournament, he entered five separate tournaments, receiving wildcards into the men's singles and doubles due to his junior success. In the men's singles, he lost in the first round to 24th seed Jerzy Janowicz in straight sets. In the men's doubles, he partnered Jamie Baker, losing in the first round to David Marrero and Andreas Seppi in straight sets. In the mixed doubles, he partnered fellow teenager Eugenie Bouchard, losing again in the first round to Frederik Nielsen and Sofia Arvidsson, again in straight sets.

In December, Andy Murray invited Edmund, James Ward and Ross Hutchins to his training camp in Miami.

2014

In January, Edmund received his first call-up to the Great Britain Davis Cup team for their World Group tie against the US, and was part of the initial nominations before being replaced by doubles specialist Dominic Inglot, meaning he was the first reserve singles player.

In April it was announced that former British player, Greg Rusedski, had assumed the role of Kyle Edmund's full-time coach.

After less than six months, Edmund dispensed with Greg Rusedski following a recent slump in form. Edmund lost five consecutive first rounds and is believed to have concluded that Rusedski’s other commitments will prevent him from putting in the necessary time at this key stage of his development. Edmund opted to concentrate on working with his other coach, James Trotman.

In November, Edmund reached his first final at the Yokohama Challenger, thanks to back-to-back victories over higher-ranked players. But Australian John Millman proved too strong in the final, winning in straight sets. Consequently, Edmund broke into the top 200.

In December, Edmund and James Ward again stayed with Andy Murray at his training camp in Miami for two and a half weeks.

2015: Davis Cup Champion

Edmund began the 2015 season at the qualifying tournament of the Australian Open. He defeated Tristan Lamasine from France and Austin Krajicek of the USA to reach the final round of qualifying, where he faced Australian wildcard Dane Propoggia. He defeated Propoggia in three close sets to qualify for the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, and make his first appearance at a major tournament besides Wimbledon. In the first round of the main competition Edmund faced Steve Johnson, but lost to the American in straight sets.

He came back from the defeat well the following week, making it to the final of the Hong Kong Challenger, and defeating world No. 94 Tatsuma Ito of Japan in a dominant display to claim his first ever Challenger Tour title without dropping a set. As a result of both his Australian Open qualifying campaign and his title in Hong Kong, Edmund broke into the world's top 150 for the first time, reaching 148th in the world. The following week, Edmund reached the quarterfinals of the Burnie International, losing in straight sets to eventual champion Chung Hyeon. Throughout the spring Edmund continued to rise up the rankings, achieving a career high of world No. 121 in the world on May 18 due to his success in Challenger level events.

Following three rounds of qualifying, Edmund made it to the main draw of the French Open for the first time in his career. In the first round he faced Frenchman Stephane Robert, and recorded his first ever Grand Slam level victory, as well as his first ever five-set match win. He was due to face Nick Kyrgios in the second round, but was forced to withdraw with a stomach injury, which it was feared could make him miss the entire grass court season if exacerbated. Following his first round win, Edmund reached a career high ranking of 101. After receiving a wildcard for Wimbledon, Edmund was beaten in the first round in straight sets by Alexandr Dolgopolov.

In July, Edmund won the Binghamton Challenger, completing the final in 66 minutes, ten years after Andy Murray won the same title.

Edmund was announced for the Great Britain squad for the Davis Cup Semi-Final against Australia. However Edmund picked up an ankle injury on the Tuesday before the tie. Great Britain won 3–2 and reached the Davis Cup Final for the first time since 1978.

Edmund reacted to a disappointing autumn by parting company with his coach James Trotman, just five weeks ahead of the Davis Cup final.

Davis Cup Captain Leon Smith supervised Edmund and James Ward, accompanying them to South America to help him decide on his second singles player for the Davis Cup Final. In November, the 20 year old Edmund won the Copa Fila Challenge title in Argentina on clay beating Brazil’s Carlos Berlocq, ranked No 112 in the world and an expert on the surface. Ward lost in the second round of the same event, though Ward, ranked 156, had also recently won a hard court challenger tournament. On the same day as Edmund's victory, Dan Evans, ranked 271, won the Knoxville Challenger on a hard court, but with Belgium opting to stage the tie on an indoor clay court, Smith chose to go with the British number two Edmund, now ranked 100.

Edmund made his Davis Cup debut in the 2015 final versus Belgium in Ghent, playing the first singles match against Belgian Number 1 David Goffin, ranked No 16. Edmund cruised through the opening two sets, but was unable to close the match out as he ultimately went on to lose in five. Edmund said "“My legs just started to get tired. I could feel them straining a bit, cramping a bit." Edmund became only the sixth man in the 115-year history of the Davis Cup to make his debut in the final. Great Britain went on to lead 3–1, and win the Davis Cup for the first time since 1936.

In December, Edmund was invited to participate in the inaugural Tie Break Tens tournament at the Royal Albert Hall, with Andy Murray, Tim Henman, David Ferrer, John McEnroe and Xavier Malisse. Edmund lost to Andy Murray in the group stage, but went on to beat him 10–7 in the final.

Edmund joined the rest of the Davis Cup team at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Show, where they won the 2015 Team of the Year Award.

Edmund accompanied Andy Murray at his training camp in Dubai, which included a trial period with British coach Ryan Jones.

2016: Breakthrough

In his first tournament of 2016, Edmund succeeded in qualifying for the Qatar Open. In the first round of the main draw Edmund achieved his first ever top-50 win over 43-ranked Martin Kližan in straight sets, before defeating Daniel Muñoz de la Nava to reach his first ATP quarterfinal, where he lost in straight sets to world number 7 Tomáš Berdych.

Edmund ranked 102, secured a place in the main draw of the Australian Open following the withdrawal of three players. Edmund was confident enough of automatic qualification to have already signed up for the Kooyong Classic, which is played at the same time as qualifying. At the Kooyong Classic exhibition match, Edmund posted a straight sets win over Australian Omar Jasika.

In the first round of the Australian Open, Edmund suffered a prolonged attack of cramping, as he went down in five sets to Bosnian Damir Dzumhur, despite having been two sets to one up, in a match lasting three hours and twelve minutes. This was only the third five-set match of his career.

At the RBC Tennis Championships of Dallas, Edmund defeated Dan Evans in the first all-British Challenger final since 2005, when Alex Bogdanovic beat Mark Hilton.

Edmund, Dan Evans, Dominic Inglot, Andy Murray and Jamie Murray were named for the Davis Cup World Group 1st round match against Japan. On the Wednesday before the tie, Edmund picked up back injury during practice, so Dan Evans was chosen as the second singles player.

Edmund was Britain's top-ranked singles player for July's Davis Cup quarter final against Serbia in Belgrade, with Andy Murray choosing to sit out the tie following his Wimbledon victory. Edmund defeated Janko Tipsarevic in straight sets in the first match and secured an unassailable 3–1 lead for Great Britain by beating Dusan Lajovic in the reverse singles, also in straight sets. These were Edmund's first wins in the competition and captain Leon Smith said, "he has every reason to be immensely proud. He was brilliant."

At the US Open, Edmund advanced to the fourth round, after defeating 13th seed Richard Gasquet and Ernesto Escobedo in straight sets and 20th seed John Isner in four sets, but lost to Novak Djokovic in 3 sets.

Edmund reached his first ATP semi-final, at the European Open in October, where he was beaten by the eventual champion Richard Gasquet. Edmund's success pushed his ranking to a career high of no. 40, becoming one of three players aged 21 or under in the world's leading top 40. The other two were Nick Kyrgios and Alexander Zverev.

2017

Reaching the second round of the Australian Open, losing to seeded Pablo Carreño Busta, before helping Team GB to the quarterfinal in the 2017 Davis Cup World Group. The Indian Wells Masters resulted in a second round loss against Novak Djokovic and in the Monte-Carlo Masters a second round loss against Rafael Nadal. In August he lost in the first round to David Ferrer at the Montreal Masters despite being a set up.

Singles performance timeline

This table is correct up to and including the 2017 US Open.

* 2015 French Open counts as 1 win, 0 losses. Nick Kyrgios received a walkover in the second round, after Edmund withdrew because of a stomach injury.