Britain's last remaining singles hope Kyle Edmund overjoyed with Australian Open win

Edmund to take on Italian Andreas Seppi for a place in the quarter-finals on Sunday

By Sky Sports Tennis

Kyle Edmund withstood the Melbourne heatwave to battle into the fourth round of the Australian Open with a five-set win over Nikoloz Basilashvili

Kyle Edmund called his five-set victory over Nikoloz Basilashvili to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open "a great, great win" for him.

The British No 2 celebrated one of the best victories of his career after coming from two sets to one down to defeat Basilashvili in searingly hot conditions in Melbourne on Friday.

Edmund looked to be struggling as temperatures hit 40.2C but he showed tremendous reserves of physical and mental resilience to come through 7-6 (7-0) 3-6 4-6 6-0 7-5 and reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the second time.

Edmund battles heat to reach last 16

Kyle Edmund into the fourth round of the Australian Open after five-set win

He arrived in Australia having lost his last three five-setters, but answered the doubters spectacularly, going the distance against US Open finalist Kevin Anderson in round one and then against Georgian Basilashvili.

One interested spectator back home was Andy Murray, who watched the match in the middle of the night and then tweeted to call it the biggest win of Edmund's career.

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"It's definitely up there," said the 23-year-old. "It's really hard to say if it's the best win or not. For sure, the physical test, it was a great, great win for me to come through like that in a Grand Slam. Best-of-five sets in that kind of heat, it's really good for my career and my confidence going forward."

Image: Edmund has now won two successive five-set matches in Melbourne

Fair-haired Yorkshiremen are not made for Australian heatwaves but Edmund ended the match looking physically better than his opponent. The secret, he revealed, was to grin and bear it.

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"It was hot, man," he said. "It's tough. There is no getting around it. Mentally, I just accepted it's going to be tough today. Physically you're probably going to be feeling not your best.

"It's probably the hottest conditions I've played in for that period of time."

Novak Djokovic and Gael Monfils both felt the conditions were potentially dangerous after their match on Thursday but Edmund had no objections about being asked to play.

"It's a professional sport," he said. "It's meant to hurt. It's not meant to be easy. If people do start to become ill, then it might be a concern. But as far as I've seen, everyone's sort of just getting through."

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Image: Italian veteran Andreas Seppi set up a meeting with Edmund

Edmund must now try to recover for his fourth-round match against 33-year-old Andreas Seppi on Sunday after the Italian, appearing in his 51st consecutive Grand Slam event, came through a titanic struggle against 6ft 11in Ivo Karlovic 6-3 7-6 (7-4) 6-7 (3-7) 6-7 (5-7) 9-7 in three hours and 51 minutes.

The British player will again be the higher ranked player, as he was against Basilashvili, and on paper it is a great chance for Edmund to reach his first Grand Slam quarter-final.

He is optimistic he will be ready for another challenge, saying: "You've got a day off. It's normal tennis, that's why we train every day, because you need accumulation of hours. I'm pretty confident. There's two sleeps until the match."

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