Wimbledon 2013: No room for Jonny O'Mara in the Kyle Edmund show
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If the car ride in was a bit fraught, the ride home was looking awkward. Kyle Edmund was not sure if his friend and housemate Jonny O'Mara would accept the offer after losing the all-British third-round boys' singles match. "It wasn't very nice playing Jonny this morning. I didn't enjoy it," Edmund said of his 6-3, 6-2 victory.
"He's a friend, stays in the next room to me. We are always talking. When you are playing him it's not nice that you are beating him. But that is how the draw was made. Ultimately, it was important to get the win and I'm pleased I got through."
In the changing room afterwards O'Mara (below) conceded that Edmund was just too good on the day. "I said I would still give him a lift home and he said, 'Oh, thanks'," Edmund said. Showing no ill effects from his first-round execution in the main draw, Edmund demonstrated the same ruthless quality used against him by giant Pole Jerzy Janowicz to progress to the quarter-final of the boys' championship at the expense of the 18-year-old Scot.
With Janowicz booking a place in the semi-finals, that defeat is not looking so grim, and Edmund reaped his own benefit from the experience. Seeded fifth, he proved too strong for O'Mara, closing out the match in a shade under an hour, and will play Stefan Kozlov of the United States today for a place in the semis. "He's a good player. I have a lot of respect for him. I'm not looking any further forward than that match."
There was no time to luxuriate in his success anyway since the opening round of the boys' doubles, which he is contesting with Portugal's Frederico Ferreira Silva, demanded his attention in the afternoon.
Edmund won that, too, as you might expect having claimed the junior French Open a month ago and the US Open title last year. It was a tight contest, with Edmund and Silva needing to hold their nerve in the third set to edge past the Swedish pair of Daniel Windahl and Elias Ymer.
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