MELBOURNE, Australia - Britain's Kyle Edmund reached the round of 16 for the first time at the Australian Open with a fighting five-set win over Nikoloz Basilashvili on Friday.
The 49th-ranked Edmund fought back taking the last two sets in blistering heat to win 7-6 (7/0), 3-6, 4-6, 6-0, 7-5 in 3hr 34min on Show Court Two.
He turned the match by winning a marathon 20-minute second game in the fourth set, which ebbed and flowed for 15 deuces with the British player taking it on his eighth break point.
From there he powered on and edged out the Georgian in a tight fifth set.
Edmund, who upset 11th seed Kevin Anderson in the opening round and followed it up with a win over Denis Istomin, will now face either Croatia's 38-year-old Ivo Karlovic or Italian Andreas Seppi in Sunday's fourth round.
Edmund, the only British man in the main draw after Andy Murray's injury withdrawal, reached the round of 16 at the 2016 US Open where he fell to Novak Djokovic.
The British player hit 20 aces among his 70 winners and broke Basilashvili's serve seven times from 27 opportunities for his second career win over the Georgian.
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source: news.abs-cbn.com
NEW YORK - Denis Shapovalov may not be old enough to drink in New York but is quickly becoming the toast of the Big Apple and the 18-year-old Canadian will again have a chance to light up the U.S. Open when he takes on Briton Kyle Edmund.
After knocking off eighth seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the Canadian giant killer returns to the Arthur Ashe Stadium court chasing a place in the fourth round.
Shapovalov's hit list includes back-to-back wins over U.S. Open champions Rafa Nadal and Juan Martin De Potro at the recent Rogers Cup in Montreal, and the Canadian will now try to add the 42nd ranked Edmund to his list of scalps.
Another of the tennis young guns in Croatia's Borna Coric, who took down fourth seed Alexander Zverev in the second round, finds 28th seeded South African Kevin Anderson standing between him and a fourth round berth.
Against some criticism, Maria Sharapova will be back on Arthur Ashe for the third straight match where she will face American wild card Sofia Kenin.
Playing her first grand slam since returning from a 15-month doping ban, Sharapova has enjoyed wild fan support every time she steps on to the court but not everyone is happy to see the five-time winner back in action.
Fifth seed Caroline Wozniacki ripped U.S. Open organisers for putting her on an outside court while Sharapova soaked up the applause on Arthur Ashe.
"When you look at centre court, and I understand completely the business side of things, but someone who comes back from a drugs sentence, performance-enhancing drugs, and then all of a sudden gets to play every single match on centre court, I think that's a questionable thing to do," said Wozniacki. "It doesn't set a good example."
There will be no complaints from the home crowd about seeing ninth seed Venus Williams or 10th seed John Isner on the Arthur Ashe stage.
Williams, a twice U.S. Open champion, takes on Greece's Maria Sakkari before turning over the spotlight to the big-hitting Isner, who goes up against Germany's 23rd seed Mischa Zverev. (Reporting by Steve Keating in New York. Editing by Ian Ransom)
source: news.abs-cbn.com
