Kyle Edmund takes positives from early Indian Wells exit

ATP Tour

He may not have won his opening match at Indian Wells, but Kyle Edmund was nevertheless happy to be back on court.

The British No 1 was playing in his first match since the Australian Open and he went down 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 31 minutes against Dudi Sela from Israel.

He had the early advantage as he broke to take a 3-1 lead, but he failed to hang on as Sela hit back in games six and 10 to take the opening set, and it was a similar story in the second set as the No 97 wrapped up the match.

Edmund, though, was relieved to play competitive tennis again following his hip injury.

“It’s good to be back on court,” the 23-year-old said. “It’s been about six weeks since I last played, and it’s not ideal to have that long off at this stage of the year, and that’s it basically – just time away from the court and a larger time away from the match court. Obviously it takes you a while to get back into things.

“There’s no stress in terms of I did really well at the start of the year. It’s not like I’m chasing a lot of points.

“The reality is I’ve had pretty much six weeks away from court and have only been properly training for three weeks.”

Next up for world No 24 Edmund is the Miami Open, which starts on March 21.

He added: “I’ve something to relate to know, and work on the next couple of weeks before my next match. Stuff to get really stuck into which is I guess – I mean there’s much more opportunities coming up for sure over the summer.”

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