HAMBURG, March 11, 2024
After enduring a challenging journey marked by setbacks and perseverance, Kyle Edmund has returned to the winners’ circle. The 29-year-old Briton, who struggled with knee issues in recent years, celebrated his first two tournament triumphs in four years. Edmund, a former World No. 14 and Australian Open semi-finalist, won 10 matches in a row, earning back-to-back ITF World Tennis Tour titles on home soil in Loughborough and Sunderland in January.
This week the World No. 401 is competing in the Challenger Hamburg. Edmund is grateful for the return to court and poised to battle his way up the rankings. After his first-round win in the qualifying of the ATP Challenger Tour 50 hard-court event against Italian Andrea Picchione on Sunday, we sat down with him for an interview.
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Tennis TourTalk: Congratulations, good start into the tournament. What made the difference in this match today?
Kyle Edmund: I just tried to keep improving my game during the match. I haven’t had a run of matches in the last couple of weeks, a bit of stop and start. I went into the match with an open mind, not having too high ambitions, playing perfect tennis. Just accepting that the game will come. It was good. I managed to come back from breaks down. In the end a lot of things came together.
You had to deal with many injuries over the last couple of years. How do you feel physically right now?
Always improving. The physicality of coming back from my injury works in tandem with my game as well. I am quite a physical player, who wants to be aggressive on the court. That requires me to be physically active, physically intense. When I came back from my knee injury you have to build the confidence in your game. It has taken time of course, but this year I seem to be in a good place. I am just trying to get as many matches as I can and improve. It hasn’t been easy but I am happy on the match court now, trying to look forward.
You enjoyed a good start into the season, winning back-to-back titles on home soil on the ITF World Tennis Tour. How did you feel during the matches?
They were good because I haven’t had that kind of matches for a long time. I played five matches in a row. The first tournament I won was the second time I played five matches in a week in three or four years. That’s a very long time. But all of them were positive for my body and confidence. Even that’s ITF level it’s still good for the mind, as you feel the pressure and want to improve. That was good, but since then I haven taken some early losses. That’s tennis. The year is long and you cannot win a tournament every week. So you have to deal with the wins and the losses as well.
You know all the big courts on the tour. How difficult is it for you to get back to the ATP Challenger Tour or even ITF Pro Circuit?
Having experienced the top of the game by playing the Grand Slams and all of the big tournaments you have a feel for it and you can use it as a motivation. There is one side when you feel that this was taken away from you because of injuries. It’s not that I lost my game. I had three surgeries and was 20 months out of the game. In football you can get injured and then come back into the team. In tennis you have to build up again. I knew that and I accepted it. There was no point moaning about it or being angry. You have to overcome it again.
There was no certain point when you maybe were thinking about retiring from tennis?
Not probably. Maybe I needed to accept that I cannot recover back to my expectations but it doesn’t mean that I cannot try. I was never waking up and thinking that I need to stop now. I was always motivated to get up and train. Of course, there were also some times, which were not exciting. There was not like joy but I always felt that I had something to offer. Before I was one of the best players. That counts for something. I kept going and you have to enjoy that process as well. You can’t be all negative.
You have never played in Hamburg…
During Covid in 2020, I was at the Rothenbaum ATP 500 tournament on clay. I came here but then had to pull out because of my knee. That’s when my injury started. So I turned up and practiced but didn’t play a match.
So you haven’t had the chance to see anything of the city?
No, but I am not a person, who has does a lot of sightseeing during a tournament week. I am more focused on my tennis routines.
Thank you and all the best.
Interview: Florian Heer
