Stubborn Kyle Edmund: I never lacked motivation despite losing ‘a bit of purpose’ | ATP Tour

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Stubborn Edmund: I never lacked motivation despite losing ‘a bit of purpose’

Former World No. 14 speaks candidly about left knee injury, which required three surgeries

October 23, 2024

For years, Kyle Edmund awoke with a clear purpose: tennis. It was the Briton’s childhood passion, the heartbeat of his daily routine and the force behind every decision.

But then, a left knee injury hindered Edmund while in the form of his life and his rhythm was shattered. Days once defined by sweat and strategy turned into a tedious grind of rehab, leaving a void in the 29-year-old.

“Then, without playing tennis, it’s kind of like what am I waking up for?” Edmund told ATPTour.com at this week’s MarketBeat Open, an ATP Challenger Tour event in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. “I’m literally just waking up to do some rehab.”

Edmund has tasted some of the highest highs a professional tennis player can experience. He ascended to career-best No. 14 in the PIF ATP Rankings in October 2018 amidst an eight-month span in the Top 20. That was the same year he reached the Australian Open semi-finals and won his first of two tour-level titles.

But the past four years have been a far different story. Edmund underwent his first of three surgeries on his left knee in November 2020. The second surgery — which was the largest procedure of the three — came in March 2021 and the final operation was in May 2022.

It has been a difficult, at times emotional, battle for Edmund, whose calendar was solely marked with the word ‘rehab’ for much of the past few years while his colleagues competed weekly across the globe. In 2021, Edmund did not play a single tournament.

“You lose a bit of purpose, start wondering what to do and all these kinds of things. There are a few moments where you are just really down and you get a bit emotional,” said Edmund, who also suffered a left wrist injury in 2023, though it did not require surgery. “You have your family or coaches around you to have a little bit of a release and sort of say, ‘What a rubbish situation it is’.”

Now Edmund is on the comeback trail. For the past two seasons, he has worked hard at the ITF and ATP Challenger Tour level with a ranking consistently outside the Top 400. He is currently at World No. 334 in the PIF ATP Rankings, his best position since June 2022.

Edmund is on track to play more than 50 matches across all levels for the first time since 2018, a step in the right direction for the North Yorkshire native, who aspires to play on the ATP Tour again.

“I never lacked the motivation, which was good. There were just times I didn’t feel there was any progress,” Edmund said. “Even if it’s tiny progress, at least it feels like you are moving but there were times where I just was like nothing was happening and that was hard. I knew though by doing nothing, I wasn’t going to get better. I was pretty determined to keep going.”

Despite the frequent challenging moments, Edmund’s determination became his greatest asset while recovering.

“In my head, I was always quite stubborn,” Edmund said. “The stubbornness doesn’t help me in other things, but it’s a good trait to be stubborn with the rehab because it was a big part of my motivation to always be like, ‘Yeah, I’m doing this! I’m going to do as much as I can to get back. There will be a day where I’m back on court’.”

The extended absence could tempt a former Top 20 player to hang up the racquets and explore a new path, but for Edmund, being sidelined reminded him of his passion for the sport.

“I think when you’ve been out that long, you then realise why you’re doing it. There’s a lot more opportunities to say, ‘I’m alright, I’m going to do something else now’ because there’s a reason there,” Edmund said. “But I think when I’ve stuck at it for a long time, it showed me that I do actually want to do it.”