Wimbledon: Kyle Edmund shows he can take the heat despite loss

Yorkshire's Kyle Edmund fell away in the final two sets after a strong start against Alexandr Dolgopolov (Picture: Adam Davyi/PA Wire).

Britain’s world No 101 was just unable to edge his ranking to double-figures after reaching the second round at the French Open.

The 20-year-old would certainly have achieved that goal by reaching the second round at SW19, but was unable to overcome his Ukrainian opponent.

Dolgopolov dumped Rafael Nadal out of this year’s Queen’s Club, and continued that fine form by easing past Edmund without issue.

Edmund’s third first-round defeat in a row at Wimbledon leaves him still waiting for that maiden senior victory at London’s grand slam tournament.

The mercury was rising at Wimbledon yesterday and the prospect of the heat rule coming into play was considered.

But Beverley’s Edmund feels there should be no need for the men to have any such rule, which presently only applies to women players.

The women’s tour, run by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), has a year-round system, introduced in 1992, that allows for a 10-minute break between second and third sets when the heat stress index – defined as factoring air temperature, humidity and surface temperature – rises above 30.1 degrees celsius.

Readings were taken 30 minutes before play began, and then at 2pm and 5pm, and the rule only applies to matches that have yet to begin. According to Edmund, players on the men’s tour, run by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), should be able to cope with all conditions.

He said: “Australia’s pretty hot and I haven’t seen too many stops.

“For me personally, I think it’s sport. Especially tennis, it can be physically testing and demanding. That’s why we put a lot of hours in on court and in the gym.

“I think play. But I can see why (the rule exists). It’s obviously important for people to be healthy. You don’t want anyone passing out on court. It’s the last thing you want. Maybe it’s something you’ve got to gauge., but I never thought about that on court. I think you’re always just in the moment and you just deal with it.

“But I’ve never actually personally stopped because of the heat rule. I don’t know what it feels like to be that close to stopping.”

Temperatures were close to 30 degrees yesterday and were forecast to nudge 35 degrees today. The WTA heat rule has been implemented twice before, in 2006 and 2009.