KYLE EDMUND’S tearful retirement book-ended British tennis’ US Open singles campaign in a sadly fitting way.
Andy Murray’s last-minute withdrawal before a ball had been hit meant this tournament was going be a glimpse of what a Murray-less future looked like.
And just when last man standing Edmund was gathering a head of steam which suggested the answer could be “Not as barren as you might fear”, the British No 2 was struck down by injury.
His clash with rising star Denis Shapovalov was finely poised at a set all, 2-2, when his upper back began to seize up.
The trainer could do little or nothing to help.
Edmund tried to fight on but could not serve, move or hit groundstrokes properly and the young Canadian took the third set at a canter before the Brit quit on his chair at 3-6 6-3 6-3 1-0 down.
The unfairness and disappointment of it all overwhelmed Edmund and the tears came.
He said: “It’s just the fact that it was such a horrible way to go out, isn’t it, really?
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“It’s a tough thing to go on a centre court, like, biggest court in the world and just feel a bit helpless, really.
“What do I do? Like do you carry on to the end? But you just go through the motions and it’s a bit of a sorry state.
“You know, you don’t want to pull out straightaway. You want to see if things are going to get better.
“But I knew that I wasn’t going to win two more sets feeling like that.
“I was in a good place, playing well, and then having to end like this.”
The mental pain will linger and perhaps intensify as Edmund watches the rest of the tournament unfold without him.
No 5 seed Marin Cilic’s four-set defeat by Diego Schwartzman left No 10 seed John Isner, due to play in the evening session, as the highest ranked player in the bottom half of the draw already deprived of Murray.
Edmund beat Isner in his run to the fourth round in New York last year. With a first-time Grand Slam finalist guaranteed from the lower section, the Brit would have loved a tilt at being that man.
Instead Shapovalov, still only 18, will have the opportunity to show that may be not only the future of tennis, but also its present.
For the second time in three meetings, a match between Edmund and the Canadian did not go the distance for unfortunate reasons.
Shapovalov has bounced back impressively from the saga of accidentally hitting umpire Arnaud Gabas with a ball during the Davis Cup and there was never any fear that there would be another default.
But sadly for Edmund and for British tennis, injury intervened.
It is the first time since the 2013 French Open – the last occasion Murray missed a Grand Slam, then with a wrist problem – that Britain has not had a representative in the fourth round of the singles of one of tennis’ four blue riband events.
When Murray withdrew and Jo Konta flopped in the first round here, the chances of extending the run to 18 Slams decreased significantly.
To have them snuffed out by another injury was cruel, though, especially for Edmund.
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