British hope Kyle Edmund reached his first Grand Slam quarterfinal with a four-set win over Italy's Andreas Seppi at the Australian Open on Sunday. The unseeded Edmund, ranked 49, dropped the opening set, but finished strongly to win 6-7 (4/7), 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 and will face Nick Kyrgios or World No. 3 Grigor Dimitrov in the last eight.
Edmund, 23, is the only British man in this year's field after five-time finalist Andy Murray's injury withdrawal before the tournament. In winning, he became only the sixth British man to reach the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in the post-1968 Open Era.
"It's a good feeling, it was a really interesting match," he said on court.
"It was a very close first set, he was hitting the ball very clean and dictating a lot of the points.
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"But after I broke him in the second set I really feel like I took the momentum. He was playing really well, but so was I. I'm through to my first quarter-final and I'm very happy."
Edmund served up 25 aces, won 80 per cent of first serve points and broke Seppi's service five times. He hit a total of 63 winners, 27 off the forehand, with 40 unforced errors. It continues an impressive breakout tournament for Edmund, who has eliminated US Open finalist and 11th seed Kevin Anderson, Denis Istomin and Nikoloz Basilashvili in the opening three rounds.
It was his second win from as many meetings with the experienced Seppi after beating him in two sets in Antwerp in 2016. Edmund trails Dimitrov 0-2 in their matches and has never faced Kyrgios.
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