Kyle Edmund wins maiden ATP tour title and becomes Britain's first new men's champion since Andy Murray
Britain has a new champion on the ATP tour, the first since Andy Murray 12 years ago, after Kyle Edmund overcame the experienced Frenchman Gaël Monfils to claim the European Open in Antwerp.
Having begun his season in fine style with his run to the Australian Open semi-finals, Edmund had gone a little quiet through the middle of the year – a lull epitomised by his disappointing power failure against Paolo Lorenzi in the first round of the US Open.
But this was a rousing way for the 23-year-old Edmund to demonstrate that he is worthy of his ranking at No14. Until Sunday, he was the highest man on the ladder who had not lifted an ATP trophy. Now ownership of that quirky factoid passes to No27 Chung Hyeon the South Korean who was also a semi-finalist in Melbourne in January.
Edmund is an understated character but he dissolved into tears for several minutes after firing one final forehand winner past Monfils. “A lot of hard work goes into this so it’s just emotion,” he told the on-court interviewer. “It’s special, you’ll always remember this one.”
This was Edmund’s second ATP final of the year, after he also reached the trophy match in Marrakesh in April. That was an even better opportunity, on paper, as he faced Pablo Andujar, a man returning from a lengthy injury lay-off. Unfortunately, the occasion seemed to get to Edmund, who managed only two service holds in his limp 6-2, 6-2 defeat. How different from Antwerp where he held his nerve superbly to close out a 3-6, 7-6, 7-6 victory in just under two-and-a-half hours.
“You’re always aware of the opportunity that you have,” said Edmund. “This is only my second final. I have just not been able to string together my matches consistently enough to win tournaments. It’s been something that has let me down, so that’s been one of my goals – to stay consistent. Today will be one I remember because I didn’t start off well, it was a very tough opponent and Gael ran so many balls down. I had to really dig deep.”
Monfils has a poor record in finals, wining only 25 per cent of his 28 attempts. As Edmund suggested, he is an obdurate opponent and defends brilliantly, but the great champions know when you have to risk everything on one or two big shots. Yesterday Edmund showed that he is beginning to learn when to roll the dice. He brought up match point with a scorching backhand that found the baseline, before closing out his win with the booming forehand that had served him so well all afternoon.
This was a red-letter day all round for the coming generation of men’s tennis. Edmund’s victory in Antwerp was matched by Karen Khachanov, 22, who beat Adrian Mannarino in Moscow. Meanwhile the 20-year-old phenomenon Stefanos Tsitsipas also claimed his first ATP title in Stockholm.
It has also been a decent couple of weeks for Britain’s best prospects. Before Edmund’s breakthrough, we celebrated 22-year-old Katie Boulter’s entry to the top 100, and 16-year old Jack Draper stringing together three titles from four Futures events entered.
