LONDON, June 15, 2016
The opening round of the Aegon Championshiops concluded on Wednesday with Kyle Edmund recording his biggest win of his career. The British wild card knocked out eighth seed Gilles Simon 6-4, 3-6, 6-1. Edmund withstood eight aces, hitting five of his own to prevail in one hour and 42 minutes.
“It’s definitely a great win,” Edmund told afterwards. “On paper it’s my best, but it’s tough to say if it’s the best win of my career. When you look at your best you look at how you play and the situations and the opponents and everything together.
“I don’t know if it was ‘the’ best win, but I’d definitely say it’s one of the best wins of my career. That’s for sure.”
The 21-year-old NextGen star will take on with Paul-Henri Mathieu another Frenchman next. Mathieu beat Daniel Evans 7-6, 6-7, 6-3.
Third seed Milos Raonic fought past Nick Kyrgios, firing 20 aces to seal a 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 victory in two hours and four minutes. The match had resumed at the start of the third set after it was suspended due to bad light on Monday night. Raonic will next face Czech lucky loser Jiri Vesely in the second round.
John Isner took out Juan Martin Del Potro, winning 7-6, 6-4. The 31-year-old US-American sent down 25 aces, winning 80% of his first service points and saved all six break points he faced. Isner capitalized on his lone break point chance to finish the encounter after one hour and 45 minutes, taking on s’Hertogenbosch finalist Gilles Muller in the second round.
“Going into this match, I didn’t expect either of us to win 6-2, 6-2. It’s grass court tennis. And especially with how I play, I figured it could be a very close match and it was,” Isner said. “It definitely came down, just as a lot of my matches do, to a few points here or there. I thought I played them pretty well.”
On Tuesday, top-seed Andy Murray had to fight hard to celebrate a successful start into the tournament, winning two tie-breaks against Den Bosch champion Nicolas Mahut. The top-seed at the The Queen’s Club fired 15 aces and won 81% of his first service points to prevail in one hour and 50 minutes. Murray will take on fellow Brit Aljaz Bedene, who emerged victorious from his first round encounter with Benoit Paire, winning 7-6, 6-7, 6-4.
