Kyle Edmund faces test of character against mentor Andy Murray

Boy or man? That is Wednesday's question for Kyle Edmund, as he prepares to hold off the challenge of a resurgent Andy Murray in Eastbourne.

In years past, Edmund was the sort of retiring teenager who hesitates to put his hand up in class. But much of that reticence evaporated during his run to the semi-finals of January’s Australian Open. “He grew as a person,” said Edmund’s coach, Fidde Rosengren. “I can’t tell you how much he has changed in a week.”

Since then, Edmund has continued to leap up the rankings, in the same way as he used to attack the Versaclimber – a torturous training device – during his formative stays at Murray’s second home in Miami.

It will not be easy, psychologically, for him to face his own mentor. Especially now that he has inherited Murray’s long-held mantle of British No 1. But these are the moments that reveal a man’s character. Will Edmund step up, as he did when he defeated Novak Djokovic during a fine run in Madrid last month? Or will he shrink into himself – something he was guilty of during a wasteful loss to Fabio Fognini at the recent French Open?

Questions also surround Murray, but of a very different kind. Admittedly, his groundstrokes have flowed like fine wine since he made his return from a 342-day injury lay-off at Queen’s Club last week. But while Murray’s tennis looks easily good enough to carry him into the second week of Wimbledon, he is not yet convinced that his body will hold up for that long.

Murray’s coach, Jamie Delgado, discussed this subject on the BBC’s TV coverage of Eastbourne on Tuesday. (Which, unfortunately for Murrayphiles, only carries the women’s matches. You can watch the men on Amazon Prime.)

“It’s the biggest event of the year,” said Delgado of Wimbledon. “The desire is huge to play there. But honestly we are just going day to day. He has just played his second match, next week is best-of-five sets. We’ve got to take his body into consideration, which is the most important thing.”

Delgado also addressed Murray’s serve, a specific area of concern despite his overall competitiveness in his first two matches. (He lost the first, against Nick Kyrgios, despite coming within two points of victory, and then blitzed Stan Wawrinka in 77 minutes on Monday.)

“It’s a shot that gave him a lot of trouble last summer at Wimbledon,” said Delgado. “He was having a problem extending up. Some of his pain has come from that shot, although he is feeling a lot better now and it is getting much better. He has not been able to serve properly for a year. It’s just a question of getting the timing and rhythm back again. We are trying to get him back to serving normally, as he always did, but it’s going to take a bit of time.”

Remarkably, Edmund v Murray is not the only British derby at the Nature Valley International on Wednesday. Cameron Norrie – who finished strongly here to knock out German qualifier Daniel Brands by a 7-5, 6-7, 6-2 scoreline – will play Jay Clarke for a place in the quarter-finals. Norrie has often said that he struggles against big servers. 

But after taking out 6ft 10in John Isner in Lyon last month and 6ft 5in Brands on Tuesda, he can begin to put that bugbear to bed. This season has been a story of rapid development for a man who played the entirety of his American college career on hard courts, but is now pulling off quality wins on clay and grass as well. “For some reason, I always play well near the ocean,” he mused afterwards.

On the women’s side, Johanna Konta took revenge on Aleksandra Krunic, the Serbian who beat her in the first round of August’s US Open, with a dominant 6-1, 6-3 win.

In one dramatic rally in the fifth game, Konta slipped as she played a delicate half-volley, but still managed to produce a perfect drop shot while falling to the ground. Krunic then followed suit, crashing into the net with such force that she had to disentangle herself carefully. That mis-step proved influential, necessitating a lengthy medical timeout at the end of the set as Krunic had heavy strapping applied to her right leg.