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British No 1 Kyle Edmund splits with coach following first-round China defeat
A grim season for British No 1 Kyle Edmund continued yesterday as he went down to a first-round defeat in China. Shortly afterwards, news emerged that his coach Mark Hilton will not be continuing their partnership.
At the ATP event in Chengdu, Edmund was drawn against Chile’s Christian Garin. The two men stand next to each other on the rankings ladder at Nos 32 and 33 respectively, but Edmund is on the slide and Garin on the rise. This contrast was reflected on the court as Edmund suffered a heavy 6-3, 6-2 defeat, his fourth straight loss dating back to the start of August.
According to the BBC, Hilton had decided before Chengdu that a change was required. Edmund’s 2019 has delivered just 12 wins at tour level, and a single quarter-final at Eastbourne. A chronic injury may be partly to blame, although the last time he was asked about his troublesome left knee, shortly before his first-round loss in New York, he replied that it was “fabulous”.
In the short term, Edmund will share the services of Dan Evans’s locum coach Colin Beecher as they play the upcoming events in Beijing and Shanghai. Evans also parted company with his own coach – David Felgate – in August, and has not yet said whether he plans to stick with the same arrangement after the Asian swing.
It would be logical to infer that Hilton and Evans might reconvene their own previous partnership, which was derailed by news of Evans’s positive cocaine test in June 2017. A month ago, Evans said that he was looking for a British coach and “someone who can play towards my level so we can do a bit more work just me and them” – a job specification that would fit the young and athletic Hilton perfectly.
However, there are positions available at the Lawn Tennis Association that Hilton may prefer, after long-time stalwart Simon Jones left the organisation and Nick Weal was promoted to run the coaching department.
Also in Chengdu, Evans overcame a determined challenge from a local wild card – world No 222 Yan Bai – to score a 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 victory and earn a second-round meeting with the recent US Open semi-finalist Grigor Dimitrov.
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