Eurosport 1 showing Kyle vs Gasquet, starting about now.

Edmund to serve first

15-0

30-0

40-0

1-0 (3 winners on the forehand wing)

 

15-0

30-0

40-0

40-15

1-1

 

15-0

30-0

40-0

40-15

2-1 (6 winners in 3 Games)

Oakland2002 wrote:

---

Kyles growth has been incremental, he has consistently been the 4th or 5 th player at his age or younger in the world, others have moved around him, but his position has remained rock solid has he has got older. To progress in such a way he generally dominates a cohort and then steps up. ie futures, challengers... Implicitly he won't play top 50 players very often 15, mostly as wild cards or in DC so when completely miss matched, and playing at a lower level, so the historical record does really hold too much weight in a player in development showing continual progression.

Now really he is at ATP 250 level, where you are still talking 3 set tennis with perhaps only one or two top seeds at Gasquet's level. Could he go deep or even win a 250 with the right draw or on the right surface? Undoubtedly .

5 set tennis is a different beast, giving quality players much more chance to steady the ship and recover after a rocky start, work ones opponent out and grind them down with consistency of play, stepping it up only in the clutch. Kyle has had some great performance over 5 sets in DC winning and loosing (on clay). Yes he could take out a seed and open up a pocket in the draw for a decent run but most likely a deep run at slams at the moment will be around a decent draw and picking someone else's pocket.

Given this pattern of development he has a punchers chance against Gasquet but agree expectations should be tempered particularly as hard fast courts don't necessarily give him chance to wind up the fear hand optimally. Kyles commitment and focus on DC tennis will I think suppress his ranking this year, which is fine, he may well even be 10-15 places adrift of Evo. He is close to dominating the cohort that play mostly ATP main tour and are direct entrants to GS but drop down to challengers for the odd points top up (100-50 group) and now needs regular exposure to the next tier, Gasquet being the pinnacle.

When compared to his contemporaries he is right on track.

---

I have been one who has argued in the past that Kyle's progress was perfectly fine against his peers when faced with posts pointing to how (  invariably temporarily ) cerain players had moved ahead of him in the rankings. It has been consistent progress and there are clear areas he can still improve on, which is good to know.

But c'mon, c'mon, what's with this kidology over Kyle's five set record, particularly in Davis Cup, losing and winning ?

Yes he has played very well in the Davis Cup, particularly against Goffin before he cramped from set 3 and fell away. He did very well to win the two Serbian matches but in the second he cramped again in just the third set and it did look a real worry if he hadn't in good order and bravely clinched the third set tiebreak.For me Kyle remains a worry in extended matches, he has not progressed here as should be expected, and he shouldn't be cramping the way he has been for whatever reasons so early in big occasion 5 setters. People have seen it, they know it.

As Rustie also points to his big match record probably isn't as good as one would hope and here I admit lacking comparative stats but I suspect it is one area he lags his peers and also such as Evo, even accepting some have been at much earlier stages in his career.

These things together and progress is certainly good but he has not yet done as much as I would hope in big matches and 5 setters, more particularly those that go beyond a straight three sets, are a worry.

Now, Kyle, go beat Gasquet over however many sets.

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 29th of August 2016 05:18:47 PM

Yes really good start, *4-2. Keep it up, Kyle.

15-0

30-0

30-15

40-15

4-2

 

15-0

15-15

30-15

40-15

40-30

40-40

adv Edmund

5-2 (14 winners and 5 aces)

 

Oakland2002 wrote:

---

Don't think Kyle fancies 5 sets

---

 

Terrific 1st set from Kedders. Not only did he dominate but there were very few long points, so hopefully he hasn't taken too much out of himself so far.