Kyle Edmund, in October 2018, had managed to reach his best ranking, the position number 14 in the world at the age of 23. Since then, however, Edmund has had a slow decline that began after surgery on his left knee in 2019 which was the beginning of a two-year ordeal where he underwent another surgery.
In an interview he granted to the Daily Mail, the British tennis player began by talking about an episode that happened to him about a year ago in a supermarket. He told “A woman approached me and asked me if I was Kyle Edmund, the tennis player.
I told her yes and she said she thought I retired. It was an event that shocked me and reminded me of how long I’ve been off the court. She was very kind and I didn’t get angry, she just showed me the reality. It was the moment where I hit rock bottom, sitting at home thinking about what was going to happen.”
Edmund then began to have good sensations in the Nottingham Pro League, a national competition in Great Britain which saw him triumph in five games in just one week thus regaining his confidence.
Kyle Edmund on his future and his past
Subsequently, the tennis player born in South Africa was in Dubai for the pre-season and, thanks to the protected ranking, he will be able to play in the first rounds of the ATP Tour.
The goal is to get back to being competitiv: “I hope I can relive all of this one day. Five years fly by, although I haven’t always felt that way. It’s given me a new lease on life. I wouldn’t say I was ungrateful before, but that’s when you feel that your career is being robbed that you appreciate being a sportsman.
At that time I became interested in photography: I bought a camera and started taking pictures and learning how to edit them. I found it very interesting and from now on I will use it on my travels.” Finally, his save on the injury he suffered in the past: “Now I have to pay attention to how much load I put on my knee.
I very much doubt that I will play 30 tournaments again in one year, but at the moment I am satisfied with the situation of my knee. When I watched tennis, in front of so many people, it seemed very far away, now it seems a little closer.
In tennis you don’t get anything for free and I hope to be at a level good enough to beat the best, like I did when I was in the top-20.”
