In many ways, the top seed Balazs, Kyle's projected QF opponent may be less difficult than his first 2 rounds. The Hungarian hasn't played for 2 months, and lost his only match of the year in the US in January - presumably an injury has kept him out. And before that he didn't play after mid-September 2012 - again I'd imagine an injury. Whilst he picked up some superb wins in April time 2012, it's been a long while since then, and his ranking will therefore plummet very soon unless he defends big points. Will he make the QF?

First round shouldn't be a problem, except that its the first round in a new country on a new court. Always dangers.

Second round is likely to be against Italian 6th seed Giorgini. This could be very interesting as he beat Kyle in straight sets when they played in Spain in October last year. That's just 5 months ago. However he has only played 1 tournament this year (2 weeks ago in Spain, QF), and didn't play in 2012 post early October, so once again injury probably an issue here. Having lots of recent matchplay against the likes of Carreno-Busta under his belt, Kyle must fancy his chances this time.

Frankly, with the withdrawal of Dominic Thiem just before the tournament began, there are no obvious standout players in the Umag  draw. Given the relative lack of strength in the field, and assuming he gets past a tricky first round match, there are grounds for optimism that Kyle has the potential to go all the way here if he plays his best tennis.

Wishing him all the best...... because watching James Ward live yesterday on clay (jaw dropping - and not in a good way), and seeing Jamie B, Josh G, Alex and Dan E's form/fitness dip alarmingly - we GB tennis fans might realistically have to wait for Kyle's generation to mature to see any success at Challenger/ATP level beyond Andy! 

I wonder if everyone is expecting to to happen too quickly for Kyle. Although we know he has the ability to progress rapidly, it's very much a learning curve and to expect him to win tournaments like this is maybe too optimistic.
I know he has already won a 10K at this level, but he is playing on clay which is not his best surface. I'd be quite happy if he gets through a couple of rounds, picks up points on his travels and progresses up the rankings.

I've no doubt he will break into the top 500 within the next 6 weeks, but i'd be fairly happy if he got to 350 or better by the end of the year and gets himself into better competitions and a higher standard of tennis.

As for people on the progression up the rankings, the likes of Ed Corrie and Ollie Golding still have the potential for optimism within british tennis and despite Jamie Baker's and James Ward's inconsistencies there is potential for them to progress up the rankings as they have qualified for a grand slam and made a challenger final respectively this season. Lets hope the last few weeks have been a slight blip.

I do love the optimism on here but I prefer the realism. As the old adage says - one match at a time.

R1: kyle Edmund (GBR) WR549 d Franko Miocic (CRO) WC WRUNR 2-6 6-3 6-2


shaky start, but got the job done

He's with Jonny O'Mara et al in Thailand playing a series of Grade 1 junior events over the next 3 weeks.

rain forecast for 4 of the the remaining 5 days, and the hourly forecast suggest's its constant today. Altough kyle is not playing today you can expect a serious backlog of matches throughout the rest of the week