Englishman in New York: Great Britain’s Kyle Edmund Hoists New

By Brian Coleman

It started at the New York Tennis Expo and finished on center court at trophy presentation, and Kyle Edmund will always remember his week on Long Island. The 62nd ranked man from Great Britain captured the New York Open singles title inside NYCB LIVE, home of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, defeating Italy’s Andreas Seppi 7-5, 6-1 and leaving New York with his second career ATP Tour title.

“When I get things going in my way, and put my game up on court, and focus on the two or three things I do very well and really concentrate on that and take them up to a big level, that’s when I become a better player, and that’s what I did this week,” said Edmund, who began his week taking part in a Q&A during the New York Tennis Expo on the tournament’s opening day. “I was very aggressive, and in key moments I didn’t give opponents opportunities, and established my authority as much as I could.”

He would put down his authority late in the first set against Seppi in the finals. With both players trading holds of serve through the first 11 games of the opener, Edmund got the first real look at a break when he went ahead 40-15 as Seppi was serving to force a tiebreak. He would capitalize on it, hitting a blistering backhand winner up the line to secure the break and win the first set

“Winning the first sets in matches always helps, but in the final, when you get that sort of first stamp of authority, you get a leg up in the match--it always helps. It forces the opponent to come up with answers to get back at you,” said Edmund. “You don’t have to force

the issue as much, you just really have to keep that momentum going. And I knew winning that first set, and breaking him, I would have to serve first in the second set and be in the lead.”

That’s just what Edmund would do. After holding to open up the second set, the eighth-seed broke Seppi to establish the early advantage in the second set. Later in the set, Edmund would break one more time following a long rally to jump ahead 5-1.

He then calmly held serve to win the second tour-level title of his career.

“I had one I thought back to,” Edmund said of his goals for this year. “I won three matches at the end of last year, but I hadn’t won four matches in a row for awhile. So that was a goal, just to win four matches in a row. I won four in a row, I was like, ‘Ok, let’s make it five’, which I hadn’t done in awhile. Obviously, winning titles is always a goal. In terms of ranking, it was just to get high up the rankings. That doesn’t just happen. You have to cut it down and look at how can we get high up the rankings, and that’s by just winning matches.”

Playing a dominant week and winning matches will certainly be reflected in the rankings, and Edmund has shot up 17 spots to 45th in the world thanks to his week on Long Island. He earned $120,635 for his title.

“Obviously, first of all, very happy to win my second career title in the ATP,” said Edmund. “When you’re young and training or playing tennis, these are the sort of things you imagine, wanting to win professional titles…I came out, played my game, didn’t get what I wanted straight away but kept at it, and broke him in that 6-5 game, and then after I got that first set I really just settled in and sort of won that second set quite comfortably.”

The title, while important in and of itself, will go a long way to reinforce the work Edmund has put in over the last year. After breaking through in 2018, climbing inside the Top 15, being the highest ranked player from Great Britain and reaching the Australian Open semifinals, Edmund’s 2019 was not as kind. Last year, Edmund lost more matches than he won, posting a record of 17-22, and falling to as low as 75th in the world rankings.

But towards the end of 2019, Edmund won all three of his singles matches while representing Great Britain at the Davis Cup, and while he sputtered in his first three tournaments of the season, entered the New York Open feeling good about his game.

He started off his week with a basic approach, and made sure to learn from some of the losses he suffered throughout the last year.

“The reasons you get to right now— with the trophy—and what makes it nice is because you experience all those downs, and then it makes you realize that you just can’t take the success for granted,” said Edmund. “You get the success from having the downs because you learn from that, and the low points mentally, and the disappointments of losing matches and those help you get to the happy times, the success and the winning of matches.”

Despite the famous black courts of the New York Open playing slow, according to most players, Edmund’s game was not affected. His blistering forehand, one of the best on the tour, was his biggest weapon throughout the week, and his aggressive style helped him out in some of the most crucial moments.

“He’s obviously been on the tour for a

long time, he’s experienced—he knows what to do on the court,” Edmund said of Seppi. “So yeah, it was tough. But the way I’ve been playing, I knew that I would have opportunities, especially with my forehand, to get in the points.”

Edmund now hopes to use this title as a catalyst to success in the rest of 2020, similar to how former New York Open champions, Kevin Anderson and Reilly Opelka, did after winning the title on Long Island.

“We just have little goals here and there—working on my game, improving it,” said Edmund, looking ahead to the rest of the season. “Obviously, a big goal in mind was to get back to where I want to be and when I’m physically in a good place and playing intensely, my game rises. So those are the big goals, but lots of little goals have gone into that. I’ve been working on that…I want to be playing more matches like these and move higher in the rankings.”

Brian Coleman is senior editor for New York Tennis Magazine. He may be reached by e-mail at.