Wimbledon 2018: Kyle Edmund into round three for first time after straight sets win over Bradley Klahn

Edmund won 6-4 7-6 6-2 to face Novak Djokovic on Saturday

Tim Henman grew used to it, Andy Murray made a habit of it and now Kyle Edmund is doing it. For the fourth Grand Slam tournament in a row Edmund became the last British singles player left in competition as the world No 17 reached the third round of Wimbledon for the first time on Thursday with his second successive straight-sets victory.

After beating the American Bradley Klahn 6-4, 7-6, 6-2, Edmund will now face Novak Djokovic, the former world No 1 and three times a champion here, on Saturday. With England playing Sweden at 3pm on the same day in the quarter-finals of the World Cup, Wimbledon organisers will face some difficult decisions when they decide the day’s schedule.

Given the world rankings of Edmund’s first two opponents – Alex Bolt was world No 204 and Klahn world No 168 – reaching the third round was probably the least the Briton should have expected, but once again it was the manner of his victory that impressed.

Edmund was playing only his second match on Centre Court – he lost to Gael Monfils 12 months ago – but from the moment he broke serve in the opening game the 23-year-old Briton looked at home. He did not have to defend a single break point in the match, while the consistency of his ball-striking was evident in his tally of just 13 unforced errors compared with Klahn’s 41.

“I was really happy to get the win,” Edmund said afterwards. “It was the second time I’d played on Centre Court and the first time I’ve won there. You grow up watching Centre Court and dreaming of winning there, so you’ll always remember the first match you win there.”

Edmund said he would not be affected by the increasing hype that will no doubt surround him as Saturday’s match against Djokovic approaches. “I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “I’ve never been in the third round at Wimbledon before so it’s great to be here.

“Novak is one of the best players in the world and he’ll go down as one of the best players of all time in tennis. Massive respect to him. He’s very dangerous. He also made the final at Queen’s so he’s playing well. For me it’s a great experience to come out here and play against him.”

(AFP/Getty Images (AFP/Getty Images)

Defeat for Johanna Konta in the previous match on Centre Court had already left Edmund as the only British player left in singles, but the world No 17 looked comfortable from the start. He broke serve in the opening game on his fifth break point after Klahn double-faulted.

Klahn, a left-hander who came through qualifying, had never won a tour-level match on grass until this week, but the 27-year-old American worked hard to make a match of it. Edmund served out for the first set, but the second was tight until the tie-break, which Edmund won 7-0.

Edmund put himself on the road to victory by breaking in the sixth game of the third set and completed the job after an hour and 55 minutes with his third break of the match.

The Briton said afterwards that breaking serve in the first game of the match had helped to settle his nerves. “I closed out the set but I thought the second set was bit tentative from both of us,” he said. “It was very much first-strike tennis. There weren’t many rallies and it got a bit scrappy at time. But I played a great tie-break and after that I really relaxed.”

Djokovic won his first three meetings with Edmund without dropping a set, but the Briton won their fourth and most recent encounter on clay in Madrid two months ago. The former world No 1, who beat Horacio Zeballos for the loss of only six games in his second-round match, said that Edmund had made a very good choice of coach when he appointed the Swede, Fredrik Rosengren, last summer.

“Heworked with Mario Ancic and Robin Soderling and he's known as a very good coach,” Djokovic said. “He has that professionalism, discipline. I think Kyle and him are a great fit. Kyle is very devoted. He has very good ethics, he’s a hard worker and he puts in the hours necessary on the court and in the gym to get himself in the best possible shape.

“You can see the results are showing that their work is very beneficial for Kyle. He's a top-20 player. He's going towards the top 10. He won against me this year in Madrid. He won against [Grigor] Dimitrov. He reached the semis of the Australian Open. He certainly has the capacity and the quality to compete at the highest level.

“He's a hometown favourite now that Andy Murray is not here. There's a lot of expectations and pressure on his back, but he's handling it pretty well so far.”