OK. Bascially Kyle was saying that he felt that playing on clay enabled him to better develop his all round game. His dislike of indoor fast surfaces in particular were that you can play well, but just get "blasted" off the court by a big server and if this happens in a 1st round match, the week is wasted. He also finds indoor conditions to be "artificial".

So there are no stunning revelations - sorry. You had both pretty much guessed what he said.

His serve is solid but it is not a "Roddick" style power serve. I think that as he develops physically, his serve will become more of a factor (he is quite tall) and then his preference for surface may change. But at the moment, they seem to be focussing on long term development rather than maximising points opportunities. We spoke about the fact that players were not getting into the top 100 as young as they used to and that they were peaking at a slightly older age. He had memories of watching Gasquet winning a Satellite/Futures (or was it Challenger) at a very young age in Bournemouth, but felt those days were gone.

There is no doubt that his ground strokes are the strength of his game. I would imagine his UE count was pretty low yesterday. He has an excellent whipped cross court forehand which he plays with a lot of topspin and which he uses to great effect to force the opponent out wide and open up the court. But for me, his best stroke is his double handed backhand when he "lets rip" and hits it really flat. It is a definite point winner. He hit two or three real "corkers" (despite the damp slow conditions) which brought some Oohs and nods of approval from those watching - including some of the other players.

Also, I haven't checked the stats, but his 2nd serve is also very effective. I think he only DF'ed twice and one of those (if I remember correctly) was at 40-0 when he went for a really big 2nd serve.

Tennis36 wrote:

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For some reason flash score believe kyle is playing today now, surely that's wrong , would make absolutly no sense to play it today

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I noticed that as well but none of the OoPs are showing it.  I checked the ATP site and also the local Murcia Tennis Club site which don't show him playing today.  And you are right that it would be ridiculous, given that his opponent has just played a long three setter starting at 11am.

Thanks Bob. As suspected really. Makes a lot of sense.

I think there's a danger of players who have a big serve relying too heavily on it and favouring indoor hardcourts (especially fast carpet), which exacerbates the situation. All too often, important aspects of the rest of their game are neglected (or at least de-prioritised), which leaves them exposed as the quality of the opposition improves. There is also a tendency to be overly defensive on return of serve, waiting for, even hoping for, errors in the knowledge that their own serve should be solid enough to be hard to break. Which works very well in futures probably, and for the very best servers at a higher level upto a point......Karlovic, Roddick, Isner, etc.

Personally I think Josh Goodall has gone down this route a bit too much in the past, as he himself seems to be well aware of and trying to sort out.....but there's no doubt that in Futures, if he's having a great serving week, he'd probably still have a massive advantage over the Edmund's and Broady's on fast indoor courts............for now, anyway.

I see the logic in this clay strategy, especially whilst Kyle is very young and still developing physically.....but like Andy has done brilliantly, presume that Kyle himself will be working hard to develop a very strong serve himself over time.

Bob in Spain wrote:

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Kyle's opponent has now been confirmed for the 2nd round as the 8th seed.

L16: Kyle Edmund WR 554 v (8) Roberto Carballes Baena (ESP) WR 313

He beat Toledo Bague 5-7 7-6 6-0

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RCB's junior career high was 8 in January 2011 and Kyle's was 8 too, in January 2012.