Australian Open 2018: Kyle Edmund stuns No 3 seed Grigor Dimitrov to reach semi-finals

Andy Murray summed it up with one word. “Wow!” the former world No 1 tweeted within moments of the stunning victory here by Kyle Edmund, his Davis Cup colleague, at the Australian Open.

Playing in his first Grand Slam quarter-final, Edmund beat the world No 3, Grigor Dimitrov, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 with a bold display of controlled big hitting to create an upset to match Novak Djokovic’s defeat 24 hours earlier by Hyeon Chung.

Edmund, who in Thursday’s semi-finals will face Marin Cilic after Rafael Nada retired with a hip injury early in the fifth set of their quarter-final, joins an elite group of British men who have progressed this far in Grand Slam events.

He will be only the sixth British man in the open era – after Roger Taylor, John Lloyd, Greg Rusedski, Tim Henman and Murray – to play in a Grand Slam singles semi-final. The last Briton other than Murray to reach the last four here was Lloyd, who did so in 1977. Murray, Lloyd and Taylor are the only other Britons in the open era who have reached the last four here.

Henman was in the crowd here to watch Edmund win the biggest match of his life in emphatic fashion. Dimitrov, who claimed the biggest prize of his career when he won the ATP Finals in London in November, enjoyed a wonderful year in 2017 and was being tipped by many as a possible winner of one of this year’s Grand Slam titles.

Edmund, however, looked confident from the start, underlining how well he has done to put behind him the memory of several close matches last year which had escaped from his grasp. He has won two five-set contests here and repeatedly shown the mental strength to recover from setbacks.

The world No 49, who has one of the biggest forehands in the game, hit 46 winners to Dimitrov’s 32, yet it was on serve that he had an even bigger advantage.

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The Briton hit 13 aces to Dimitrov’s seven, but it was the 26-year-old Bulgarian’s seven double faults that seemed to undermine his confidence. In truth the world No 3 has been in patchy form for most of this year, though his victory over Nick Kyrgios in the fourth round on Sunday evening had suggested that he had turned the corner. He had also won both his previous meetings with Edmund, most recently in Brisbane a fortnight ago.

By making his debut in Rod Laver Arena, Edmund moved three-quarters of the way towards a career Grand Slam of appearances in the sport’s four major stadiums. The Briton was beaten by Djokovic in Arthur Ashe Stadium at the US Open in 2016 and by Gael Monfils on Centre Court at Wimbledon last year. Now he has just Court Philippe Chatrier at Roland Garros to complete his collection.

With the sun shining brightly and the temperature a pleasant 22C, the conditions when they walked on court just after 2.30pm were almost perfect. Edmund had made slow starts in three of his first four matches here, but this time he got off to a flier, breaking serve in an opening game in which he hit some big forehands, a fine backhand winner down the line and a textbook winning volley. The start spoke volumes for his confidence.

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Dimitrov, however, broke back in the sixth game. From 40-30 up Edmund hit a double fault and then made two successive forehand errors.

At 4-4, nevertheless, Edmund broke again. Dimitrov double-faulted to go 15-30 down and then missed a forehand under attack from Edmund’s big hitting. The Bulgarian saved the first break point but on the second Edmund ran round his backhand to hit a monstrous forehand return winner. He converted his second set point in the following game with a service winner.

However, Dimitrov came out fighting at the start of the second set. After taking a 2-0 lead the world No 3 held serve from 0-40 down and served out for the set with something to spare.

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Dimitrov retrieved an early break in the third set, but in the eighth game his seventh double fault cost him his serve once again. When Edmund served for the set at 5-3 he went 15-30 down before taking matters into his own hand. A sledgehammer forehand down the line took him to 30-30, another forehand winner took him to set point and a service winner did the rest.

Excitement mounted as Edmund made the first break of the fourth set in the fifth game courtesy of two successive forehand errors, though Dimitrov broke back immediately.

At 3-3 Dimitrov saved a break point when Edmund netted a forehand, but the Briton was not to be denied. With Dimitrov serving at 4-4 the Bulgarian went 15-40 down as Edmund successfully challenged an “in” call on a backhand down the line, Hawk-Eye’s cameras proving that the ball had missed by the tiniest of margins. Two points later Dimitrov’s netted backhand gave the Briton the chance to serve for the match.

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At 15-15 in the final game Edmund double-faulted, but he held firm despite the enormous pressure. Instead it was Dimitrov who continued to make the mistakes, the last of them on Edmund’s first match point as a backhand sailed beyond the baseline.

In next Monday’s world rankings list Edmund is expected to climb 23 places to a career-high position of No 26. Should he reach the final, he will even replace Murray as the British No 1.

However, there will be no chance for the 23-year-old to rest on his laurels. In Murray’s absence Edmund will be the key figure in Britain’s Davis Cup team when they face Spain in the World Group first round in Marbella at the end of next week.

Britain’s second singles player for the tie will be either Cameron Norrie or Liam Broady, who will both be in the party. Jamie Murray and Dominic Inglot will play doubles.

Leon Smith, Britain’s captain, described the task of taking on Spain on clay in their own country as “the toughest draw” in the World Group but insisted: “We will absolutely give it our best shot.”