Stircrazy wrote:

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The lad seems to be going from strength to strength!   Well done, Kyle. 

SF:  (1) Benjamin Balleret (MON) WR 508 (CH of 204 in June 2006...) vs (4) Kyle Edmund WR 408

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 It would be nice if seedings went by career high I suppose

Also interesting to note that Mr Naso, who Kyle either thrashed or at the very least "beat handily" last week, has reached the Cordenons Challenger QF this week. Naso will probably lose today, but it still puts Kyle's level into perspective.........

Even at the age of just 18, Kyle can probably already be regarded as one of the top Futures players, and if he wins this week and does well again next week, it's not impossible that those might be his last Futures tournaments for the foreseeable future, certainly at $10k level......I can see him using them next year as useful warm-up or comeback tournaments, or something to try when Challengers are thin on the ground, but not much more than this.

Perhaps his coaching team don't see things this way, and they certainly appear to have been on the money to date. He has an Italian $10k earmarked for early September, but if he continues to rack up even more big points before then, perhaps they will feel encouraged to move his focus up to Challengers more swiftly than originally planned: after all if he somehow managed (unlikely, but not impossible) to win 3 $15ks in a row......surely you'd need to reset his goals for the back end of 2013.

Anyway, it's hugely impressive to see his rapid progress, and I can't help but think back to his "surprising" loss to Chase Buchanan at the end of last year from an almost certain winning position.......at the time this seemed a horrendous set-back, but in hindsight it was probably a massively important learning moment......which is now helping shape Kyle's mental approach at key moments in his matches.

Is it REALLY impossible that he could be selected ahead of James and/or Dan for the forthcoming DC tie on clay? Unlikely yes, but I'm not so certain at this point it's completely out of the question.

Bob in Spain wrote:

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korriban wrote:

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He has an Italian $10k earmarked for early September, but if he continues to rack up even more big points before then, perhaps they will feel encouraged to move his focus up to Challengers more swiftly than originally planned: after all if he somehow managed (unlikely, but not impossible) to win 3 $15ks in a row......surely you'd need to reset his goals for the back end of 2013.

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I also noticed the Italian 10k for early September.  Prior to that, he has another 15k in Poland next week followed by a Challenger in Italy (Como) the following week.

So to then drop down to a 10k after a 4 week stretch seemed a strange choice to say the least.  However, if you look at the map, the tournament in Trieste is very close to Umag where he will undoubtedly be the week after.

My guess is that if Kyle can continue his form over the next two weeks, he will withdraw from Trieste and take a break.  But if he has a couple of 1st or 2nd round defeats, he may play Trieste just to keep his eye in and finish his DC preparations.

Will he actually play a live singles ?  Much as I would like to see him play, I still very much doubt it.  JW and DE are still ahead in the pecking order for me, but that may not be the case for much longer.

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On balance I agree. Only slight (high quality) spanner is that if he were to have another excellent week in Poland next week, I assume it scuppers his ability to play qualies for Como CH......unless he is given a random WC into the MD, which frankly isn't likely to happen  even if he changes his name to Carlo Edmundo.