Australian Open: Nadal bows out as Edmund shocks Dimitrov

The Australian Open hails “King Kyle”. South Korean Chung Hyeon, 21, could join Edmund in the semifinals if he beats American surprise package Tennys Sandgren on Wednesday.

Edmund earned the right by bravely knocking out world No 3 Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The No. 2 seed’s quality shone through in the decider, though, as she broke her opponent twice to book her place in the semi-finals at Melbourne for the second time. Folliw live scores and updates from Australian Open Day 9.

“He’s also very entertaining to watch – big hitter, great serve, great forehand”. From my side of things personally, it was a lot of positives.

The unseeded 23-year-old held his nerve to down Bulgarian No 3 seed Grigor Dimitrov 6-4 3-6 6-3 6-4 on Tuesday in a match lasting two hours and 45 minutes.

1030 hrs IST: Poor serve this one from Dimitrov.

“It was a close first set and I didn’t feel I got the best start”.

In the third round, Edmund outlasted Nikoloz Basilashvili 7-6 (0) 3-6 4-6 6-0 7-5. And now he has another break point opportunity.

They were back on serve nearly immediately, however, with Dimitrov beginning to crank up the pressure and Edmund, through a double-fault, starting to realize the occasion.

Dimitrov stepped up his campaign after a couple of indifferent wins in the earlier rounds to avenge his defeat to Kyrgios in the semifinals of this month’s Brisbane International.

Edmund has since recovered and won two five-set matches in Melbourne and, against Dimitrov, was the steadier of the two players, recording 46 winners (to Dimitrov’s 32) and converting five of 15 break points (while Dimitrov went three-for-nine). From outside the tramlines, he returned a Dimitrov second serve with a ferocious wrap-around forehand to retake the lead.

0945 hrs IST: Grigor Dimitrov who came through a tough four setter against Nick Kyrgios is now up against Kyle Edmund of Great Britain.

The 23-year-old is coming off hard-fought wins over Kevin Anderson, Dennis Istomin and Andreas Seppi and was looking to add to the long list of upsets at the tournament so far. What an absolute carnage from the Belgian who trains at the Kim Clijsters academy.

The captain knows, though, that if Britain are to cause the most unlikely of upsets then they must rely on Edmund to carry his superb form onto a surface he likes and has had good results on. “What really impressed me is that even with that weapon he still did other things, he hit the backhand hard and came to the net too, I thought it was a brilliant performance”, Wilander said.

Edmund believes he can go all the way, but how do the bookies rate his chances of winning the Australian Open?

Fourth seed Elina Svitolina dropped just three games before powering past Czech qualifier Denisa Allertova 6-3 6-0 and into the quarter-finals where she will meet Belgium’s Elise Mertens.