The absence of Andy Murray, Jo Konta and Heather Watson have British US Open hopes already in unfamiliar hands

By the start of the first evening session Kyle Edmund, Aljaz Bedene and Cameron Norrie are the sole Britons remaining at Flushing Meadows

Kyle Edmund leads an unheralded list of Brits in New York (Getty)

When the draw for the US Open was made four days ago few people would have imagined that the only Britons left in singles competition by the start of the first evening session would have been Kyle Edmund, Aljaz Bedene and Cameron Norrie.

Andy Murray was still in the draw at that stage, even if there was a doubt about his participation because of his ongoing hip problems, while Johanna Konta was one of eight women who had the chance to end the tournament as world No 1.

However, Murray’s surprise withdrawal on Saturday night, Konta’s shocking opening-day defeat to Aleksandra Krunic and Heather Watson’s all-too-familiar first-round loss have left British hopes in unfamiliar hands. Bedene will play his first match on Tuesday against Andrey Rublev, while Edmund and Norrie will be enjoying a day of rest after their opening-day victories.

If Norrie’s win had an element of good fortune in that Dmitry Tursunov retired with a knee injury after losing the first two sets, there could be no doubt about the merit of Edmund’s victory. The 22-year-old Briton beat the No 32 seed, Robin Haase, 6-3, 7-5, 6-3.

Only three days earlier Edmund had been playing in the semi-finals of the Winston-Salem Open but the world No 42 put aside his tiredness, even if he admitted afterwards that he had needed to drink a can of Coca-Cola at the start of the match “to get myself going”.

Many of the top players prefer not to enter a tournament in the week before a Grand Slam event, but Edmund decided to play at Winston-Salem after losing in the first round of the Cincinnati Masters.

“I didn’t really want to train for two weeks,” he said. “It can become quite stale and boring. Playing practice points is not the same as playing competitive points. It’s a different feel. I just thought I’d rather keep playing matches. It actually worked out that I played a lot of matches.”


 Norrie is through to the second round after Dmitry Tursunov retired injured 
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He added: “You can’t be completely fresh every match because the year’s so long. You accept that in some matches you aren’t going to feel great. In some matches you’ll have aches and pains and in some matches you’ll be exhausted. You just have to do the best you can. It’s a good problem because I was winning, playing matches.”

The reward for Edmund is a second-round meeting on Wednesday with Steve Johnson, a big-hitting American ranked No 46 in the world. They have met twice before. Johnson, aged 27, won at the Australian Open two years ago, while Edmund won last week in the quarter-finals at Winston-Salem.

“I know his game style,” Edmund said. “He has a big first serve and a big forehand. He doesn’t hit his backhand as well as his forehand because he slices it.” He added: “I’m playing well. I’m in a good place. It gives me another day. When I got here on Saturday morning it was all a bit of a rush - a couple of days and then I was playing. So it gives me another two days to settle in.”


 Edmund beat Robin Haase in the first round 
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In Murray’s absence, Norrie maintains a Scottish influence in the men’s singles. The world No 225 was born in South Africa, spent most of his childhood in New Zealand, lived in London for three years as a teenager and is currently based in Texas, but his father is from Scotland and his mother from Wales.

“I’m pretty Scottish, I think,” Norrie said. “My dad was born in Glasgow, my mum in Cardiff. I’ve been to Scotland a few times, but I don’t like the weather. I went to Aberdeen. That’s where my dad’s side of the family live. I’ve got cousins and uncles in Kintore.”

Norrie played college tennis at Texas Christian University, which is still his training base, and does not expect to spend much time in Britain in the immediate future. “I’m going to be playing a lot of tournaments in the States because I like the hard courts,” he said. “I’m going to stay in the States for the rest of the year and play the Challengers at the end of the year here.”

Asked if this was a chance, in the absence of Murray, to make some headlines of his own, Norrie said: “No, I can’t look at it like that. I’m happy I’m through and it’s tough for Andy. I feel bad for him. I’m sure he’ll be back.”

Oddly enough, the two Britons left in the men’s singles were both born in Johannesburg. Edmund’s family moved to Britain when he was three, while Norrie’s went to New Zealand when he was the same age. Norrie’s parents met when working in Johannesburg.

“They moved to New Zealand just because it was too dangerous in South Africa,” Norrie said. “They were just kind of sick of getting robbed, just little things like that. New Zealand was just a really safe country.”


 Murray's absence leaves Norrie as the sole Scottish influence on the draw 
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As a boy Norrie was better at cricket than tennis. “I just chose tennis because I thought fielding was too boring in cricket,” he said.

Norrie said that going to college in the United States had been crucial for his tennis. “I just grew up quite a lot,” he said. “Tennis-wise, I got a little bit bigger. In juniors I wasn’t really hitting the ball that hard but I got a little more explosive. Everything improved for me. I got to relax and live a more normal life and worry about other things, rather than just focus on tennis. It gave me a more normal life for a little bit and I wasn’t so scarred by the losses from Futures Level. I almost skipped that in a sense.”

Norrie, who won three matches in qualifying to earn his place in the main draw here, said that he felt much more comfortable on hard courts than on grass. He made his Grand Slam debut last month at Wimbledon, where he lost to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the first round. “Wimbledon was a massive tournament and I was on a pretty big court so I was more nervous, especially playing Tsonga,” he said.

Norrie is now looking forward to facing the No 12 seed, Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta. “He’s going to give me some rhythm,” Norrie said. “He’s not going to serve me off the court. It’s going to be nice, I can play my own game and feel comfortable. I’m happy with it. It’s not like I’m playing one of the bigger guys. Obviously he’s a great player and it’s going to be really tough, but I’m looking forward to the challenge.”