Australian Open review: Kyle Edmund completes fightback to win

Britain's last remaining singles hope 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's progress was held back last year by a failure to win close matches, and he arrived in Australia having lost his last three five-setters. But he has answered the doubters spectacularly, going the distance against US Open finalist Kevin Anderson in round one and then against Georgian Basilashvili on Friday.

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.

"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."

Edmund suffered a lull after appearing in control at a set and a break up but a 20-minute Basilashvili service game early in the fourth set, where he finally broke, turned the match in his favour.

He won only seven of 27 break points and made 64 unforced errors but this was a day for heart and fortitude rather than exceptional tennis, and Edmund was not found wanting.

Basilashvili, ranked 61 to Edmund's 49, quickly settled for a deciding set after his titanic service game, which featured eight break points and 15 deuces, and came back strongly in the fifth.

But, after Edmund had coolly saved a break point at 4-4, Basilashvili sent down his 17th double fault to hand his opponent a match point and then netted a backhand.

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.

"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."

Edmund must now try to recover for his fourth-round match against either Italian Andreas Seppi or 6ft 11in Ivo Karlovic on Sunday.

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."

Elsewhere, Nick Kyrgios boosted hopes of a home winner by beating his childhood hero Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the third round at Melbourne Park.

The Australian has made it clear how badly he wants to be in the mix for the title with his professional approach so far and he proved the stronger in the big moments to win 7-6 (7/5) 4-6 7-6 (8/6) 7-6 (7/5).

Kyrgios attended the 2008 tournament, when Tsonga reached the final, as a 12-year-old fan and took a ball to each of the Frenchman's practice sessions to get autographed.

Kyrgios had a bit of a letdown in the second set but proved the king of the tie-break, winning five points in a row in the final one and celebrating his victory with an exuberant pump of the fists.

"It was amazing," he said. "I'd never won a match on this court. Playing Jo I was obviously very nervous. He was a guy I looked up to as a kid, still do, he's a champion of the game.

"I was getting prepared for a fifth set. I just stayed composed, tried to make returns and fired it through. I've got doubles tomorrow and then I've got a tough match against (Grigor) Dimitrov."

Kyrgios felt added tension because of the presence court-side of Hollywood star Will Smith. "I was so nervous when I saw him," said the 22-year-old. "People think I'm cool but I just wanted him to think I was the coolest person ever."

Rafael Nadal looked in ominous form in a crushing win over Damir Dzumhur to reach the last 16.

Playing in much cooler conditions than those which greeted the daytime matches, Nadal took an hour and 50 minutes to overcome the Bosnian 28th seed 6-1 6-3 6-1.

Last year's runner-up, who plays 24th seed Diego Schwartzman next, has yet to drop a set and has put concern about the state of his knees firmly behind him.

Nadal said: "I needed hours on court, hours of practice, hours of playing sets with different players. That's what I did. I think I did a good preparation here. I felt myself playing well. Here I am in the fourth round. That's because I am doing the right things. Let's see how far I can go."

Things were tougher for third seed Grigor Dimitrov, the man Nadal beat in an epic semi-final 12 months ago.

Dimitrov has yet to find the form that carried him to the brink of a first grand slam final but there is no doubt about his desire and he battled past 30th seed Andrey Rublev 6-3 4-6 6-4 6-4.

The Bulgarian was taken to five sets by American qualifier Mackenzie McDonald in the previous round and was at least happy that he is heading in the right direction.

Dimitrov said: "I recovered well. Obviously today was another tough test for me. I just had to find a way again, simple as that. At least the game was a little bit better than the previous match."

Dimitrov and Rublev served a remarkable 28 double faults between them, with the Bulgarian throwing in 15. "That's absolutely unacceptable," he said. "Hopefully I serve better next round."

Dimitrov surely cannot afford a repeat against Kyrgios, who he lost to at the Brisbane International two weeks ago.