Britain’s Kyle Edmund stunned third seed Grigor Dimitrov in the quarter finals of the Australian Open to make it through to the semi-final of a Slam for the first time in his career. Edmund is just the sixth British man to have made it this far in a Grand Slam and will now battle against Marin Cilic, the tournament’s sixth seed for a place in Sunday’s final.
It has been some run from Edmund so far. He opened the tournament with his best ever win as he beat out 11th seed Kevin Anderson in an epic five-set battle, doing all that he could to try and find an answer to the South African’s impressive serve. After an easy straight sets wins over Denis Istomin in the second round, Edmund than had to face 40c heat as he battled with Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili for a place in the fourth round.
The heat made it a strange spectacle, with the players struggling in the second set for energy and it was nothing more than a survival of the fittest as opposed to high-quality tennis. It was five set match on top of all that with Edmund squeezing through 7-5 in the deciding set, his own impressive serve guiding him through. He then faced Italy’s Andreas Seppi in the fourth round and recovered from losing the first set on a tie-break to win the next three sets.
That set up the duel with World Number 3 Grigor Dimitrov. Edmund took his chances in the first set to pull out a lead and despite a fightback from the Bulgarian in the second to tie things up it was Edmund who looked the more controlled and composed in the match and that saw the Briton make it through to the semi finals. It wasn’t without drama though as the match point was settled by a hawk-eye decision.
Edmund’s serve and forehand have been a joy to watch throughout the tournament and now he is just one match away from reaching a Grand Slam final and that is without the 23 year old ever having been to the final of an ATP Tour ever. His semi final opponent Cilic was the benefactor of Rafa Nadal’s tournament withdrawal in their quarter final battle. Nadal was down in the final set 2-0 when he took himself out of the game and so that leaves a place in the final four for former US Open winner Cilic, who has had a fairly smooth and comfortable ride through the tournament.
Kyle Edmund v Marin Cilic Head to head
There has been just the one meeting between the two players before and that was in China last year at the ATP World Tour Master 1000 Shanghai event. It was a round of 32 match that Cilic won in straight sets.
Kyle Edmund v Marin Cilic Odds*
Marin Cilic 1/3, Kyle Edmund 9/3
Kyle Edmund v Marin Cilic Prediction
Edmund will make it into the Top 30 in the world at the end of the Australian Open no matter what. His opponent Cilic played really well against Nadal in what was his fifth Grand Slam semi final appearance. He benefited from Nadal being wayward with his backhand in the first set for sure and he just grew into the match and once Cilic started opening up, he looked the more likely of the two to progress even in a tight match overall, and he fully attacked Nadal’s weakened backhand.
Nothing seems to phase Edmund at all. He is cool and collected, has a tremendous serve and his forehand can destroy the best of defences. There were times against Dimitrov that he looked pretty shaky though and his tennis dropped to levels lower than we have seen from him during the entire run. Maybe the occasion is getting to him a little bit and he will have to punch against his weight in this one. Cilic is no mug, he’s a very smart tennis player and is rightly favourite. A Cilic 3-1 in set betting for 5/2 odds at Paddy Power* (Betting Odds taken on January 23rd at 8:29 p.m.) has some appeal.
