Aegon Championships 2016: Andy Murray overcomes dogged Kyle Edmund to reach semi-final

Andy Murray was given a brief scare by fellow-Briton Kyle Edmund before earning safe passage through to the semi-final as he continues attempts to claim a record fifth title at the Aegon Championships at Queen's Club. The four-time champion won the opening set but his Great Britain Davis Cup colleague broke twice in the second to level the match.

But the two-time grand slam champion showed his class in the decider with two breaks of Edmund's serve to prevail 6-4 3-6 6-1 and set up a last four clash with Croatian Marin Cilic in a repeat of the 2013 final in south London, which Murray won in three sets. Edmund meanwhile emerges with plenty of credit from the first ever British men's quarter-final clash in the professional era at the venue.

In the wake of the inclement conditions which badly affected the first two days of the tournament, Murray slipped several times on the greasy surface – falls which he described as a "shock", but he escaped any long-lasting damage as his build-up towards Wimbledon continued apace.

"I train with Kyle a lot so I know how good he is. He is a big strong guy and has a very powerful game," the world number two told BBC Sport. "When he is on he is very tough to play against and practise and I felt that in the match today so I expected it to be hard.

"I was a bit disappointed to lose the second. I lost serve up 40-0 and had a couple of break back chances just after that and Kyle served extremely well. I tried to up my intensity [in the third set], stay aggressive at the beginning of the set and it worked.

"Kyle is the future of the game in this country. It is important that he is given time to develop at his own rate and not too much pressure is put on him. He is doing great, he is improving every single year, he has a really good team behind him. They work him very hard and if he is given time and space and there is not too much pressure on the results then he can go very far."