Sounds like it was a bit tougher than we might have expected, but a good battling win for Kyle that will hopefully do him the world of good. I remember the Yang match - the Taiwanese player had an even bigger forehand than Kyle and was just out-hitting him, particularly in that second set.

Cheers for the running commentary Bob!

Just been scouring the rankings and I noticed that Yoshihito Nishioka is in the 160s these days. Wow. For those that don't know who he is, he's the same year as Kyle (although 8 months younger) and has shadowed him throughout both their junior and professional careers, with Kyle thrashing him whenever they have met (6-3, 6-1 has been a pretty common scoreline). Even when Kyle was rising up the 200s, Nishioka was always 10-20 rankings back. But it seems that whilst Kyle has stalled, Nishioka has carried on performing and is now far ahead of him and indeed many of the most talented juniors. I know it means nothing really, but it saddens me a little to see him so far ahead.

Hopefully Kyle can return to form and start to surge back up those rankings early next year.

It's not just Brits though who go through slow phases when transitioning. I've just seen that Gianluigi Quinzi (junior #1 by some margin and was always ahead of Kyle progressing up the professional ladder until 2014) has stalled in the 300s, whilst Borna Coric (someone Quinzi always had the measure of at junior level and early professional level) has broken the top 100 and Kokkinakis the top 160.

Quinzi is still a massive talent and I'm sure it's only a matter of time before we start hearing more of him again. My point being, that these promising juniors do progress at different rates and it's all too easy to compare our youngsters with higher ranked prospects of a similar or younger age, but we rarely look at how many of their former junior rivals they are actually ahead of. And I've said it a few times, but Ryan Harrison is a grand example that just because some players storm up the rankings in their teens, it doesn't necessarily mean they will go on to have better careers. Just take a look at Jack Sock's plight compared to Ryan Harrison or Bernard Tomic and look where they are now. I think Sock's a great example of why these limits that some people on this board like to label on players are just completely unrealistic and, well, unfair.

Sock, interestingly was #206 in the world when he turned 20 (and broke the top 200 a month or so later) so not all too different to Mr Edmund currently.

Very good post, TMH ( which partly means that I agree with practically it all :) )

Great comeback win for Kyle, should be a major confidence boost.
There's no doubt Kyle will be a solid top 100 player at the very least, even if this year he has hit a few road blocks.

Nice to see Kyle moving forward again, I know very little about Nishioka but Quinzi struck me as precocious but short, likely to have more stormy transition than Coric. I really don't think we should take much notice of rankings, maybe the ranking in generality ie how it affects the tournaments they can enter but Kyles done OK this year coach or no coach. He must haven't learnt something about serving this year at the very least? It will be interesting to see how the forwards compare a couple of months on.

Impressive.

It looks like James is continuing in excellent form considering Brydan himself has been in decent form. And had rather less to travel and more familiarity with the surroundings