But not irretrievably. In the third, Murray blitzed Edmund in 29 minutes. But only two could make the quarters-and Murray beat Bedene.
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Edmund, meanwhile, was given a free pass into the quarter-finals after his opponent Paul-Henri Mathieu pulled out with a wrist injury.
This one had something of the master and pupil about it, or perhaps rather mentor and mentee.
Murray quickly took his 21-year-old foe to task at the top of the tie, forcing a break in just the third game of the match.
Edmund agreed: “The best thing is to invest it in my career”.
“Just patterns of play, the shots that are going to help me win on grass”.
The colourful 57-year-old appears to have made a positive first impression on world number nine Raonic, who is through to his first Queen’s final.
Edmund, whose day had not got off to the best of starts when he was woken at 6.30am for the delivery of a dishwasher at his new flat in Wimbledon, served out to level the match, though he had to save three break points at 5-3.
Federer next meets fifth-seeded David Goffin.
“But coming out of the changing rooms I got my game back on the court and took my game to him”.
“And I think with Ivan and Jamie they will be able to do that for me”.
Murray agreed he was motivated by the chance of claiming that record. Edmund recovered to deuce from 0-40, only for Murray to complete the break with precious little fuss. Murray hauled through five deuce points, forcing him to save for a second time as the game went into its ninth minute. Again, the chuntering was a backhand compliment to the younger player.
It is an area of Murray’s game that has seen some improvement, especially with his second serve, and it is a golden opportunity for free points if it fires well. But he responded in kind, and began to inject more venom into his tennis.
Big-serving Cilic saved a break point at 4-4 in the opener and then struck against the Tipsarevic serve to love to take the first set.
Murray was, not surprisingly, very complimentary of his opponent.
“In the race this year he’s in the top 50 so if he can continue on that path – most guys are playing their best when they get to their mid to late 20s now – there’s no reason why he can’t get himself up into the top 20, top 30 in the world, and from there you never know”.
As reported in BBC Sport, he said: “Kyle’s the future of the game in this country”. It is important that he is given him time to come through at his own rate.
Murray is about as good as a player gets in terms of defence on grass and Cilic has yet to play a really good defender at this tournament.
Lawn tennis is won as much with the feet as the hands, and Cilic, the 6ft 6in Croatian spent the first set of the first semi-final looking like someone had attached wheels to his shoes.
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In far less dramatic fashion than England’s 2-1 comeback win over Wales at the European Championship later in the afternoon, Murray duly dispatched Aljaz Bedene 6-3, 6-4 under grey skies at the Aegon Championships.
