21-year-old American too strong for British no 1, as 7-6 6-3 win secures reach Nature Valley International final berth
Friday 28 June 2019 20:13, UK
Kyle Edmund's hopes of the Eastbourne International title as the perfect Wimbledon warm-up are over after he suffered semi-final defeat to Taylor Fritz.
The British No 1 and third seed had battled his way past two of his countrymen to reach the last four, beating Cameron Norrie and Dan Evans to set up his date with Fritz who had already accounted for a Brit of his own in Paul Jubb in the first round.
With little between the pair early on, and Edmund unable to get a handle on the dominant American's blistering serve, the first set went all the way to a tie-break where Edmund seized an early advantage and held four set points.
However, Fritz held his nerve to save them all and eventually win the breaker 10-8 before landing an early break of serve in the second for a 2-0 lead, which he held onto to close out a straight-sets victory and a final against another American, Sam Querrey.
Edmund will take heart from a couple of wins after a first-round defeat at Queen's following his wild card into the event but attention now turns to Wimbledon and a first-round tie against Spain's Jaume Munar to kick off his campaign.
Querrey, 10 years older than Fritz and a Wimbledon semi-finalist in 2017, needed three sets to come through against Italian qualifier Thomas Fabbiano with a 6-3 6-7 6-3 victory.
In the women's event, defending Wimbledon champion Angelique Kerber will face Karolina Pliskova for the title.
Kerber's semi-final opponent Ons Jabeur withdrew with an injury on Friday having rolled her right ankle during Thursday's quarter-final win over Alize Cornet and could not recover in time for her second career semi.
Chasing her first title since she beat Serena Williams in last year's Wimbledon final, Kerber will play in the Eastbourne final for the third time after losing in 2012 and 2014.
Second seed Pliskova did not face a single break point in a surprisingly straightforward 6-1 6-2 win over world no 4 Kiki Bertens - the third consecutive match she has dropped three games or fewer.
Pliskova beat Caroline Wozniacki to win the Eastbourne title in 2017 after losing to Dominika Cibulkova the year before but it is Kerber (7-4) who leads the head-to-head between the pair.
However Pliskova, who won the Italian Open last month, also triumphed in their only previous meeting on grass, in 2015.
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