KYLE Edmund did something remarkable here yesterday. Just not remarkable enough. The 20-year-old, born in Johannesburg but brought up from the age of three in Beverley, Yorkshire, was bidding to become the first Davis Cup final debutant in history to record victory in a live rubber. Five had tried before him since the start of the open era, and all had failed. Not only that, but all had been part of losing team efforts.

Standing between the World No 99 and only the second non-Murray generated point in Great Britain's glory run - James Ward got the other against John Isner in Glasgow in March - was David Goffin, the World No 15. Edmund had never beaten a player ranked higher during his career.

Yet for two glorious sets mission impossible seemed highly probable. Escaping unscathed after the minor ordeal of a 12-minute opening game on serve, Edmund uncorked that huge forehand of his regularly to take the first set 6-3. With the Brit making just one unforced error, the second set arrived soon after, clinched 6-1 courtesy of the latest in a raft of Goffin double faults. At that point the home hero was hoping the clay of the Flanders Expo Centre in Ghent might just open up and swallow him.

"I was a little bit worried because Kyle was playing unbelievable," said Goffin, after his first career victory from two sets to love down. "It was tough to manage it because I didn't know Kyle before the match, how he plays. If Kyle played three sets like this then okay, no problem, he plays unbelievable. The pressure was more on my shoulders because we needed this point. But it's always tough when you are young and playing your first match in Davis Cup to play three sets like this."

When this match turned, it turned all right. This pale Yorkshireman, who had only once previously played a five-set match, albeit a victory on clay against a Frenchman, Stephane Robert, in his home slam at Roland Garros, started to fade badly and Goffin began to play his way into the match. Edmund, visibly cramping up, only had enough left in the tank to eke out three further games before Belgium had their first point on the board, by a 6-3, 6-1, 2-6, 1-6, 0-6 scoreline. If you were being facetious, you might say that in defeat, Edmund had become South African again.

In time, the 20-year-old will go on to appreciate what he did here as a significant staging post in his development. But right now he is still pretty much inconsolable. With no half points for game losers in the Davis Cup, the best that could be said was that at least he had extended Goffin for two hours and 47 minutes ahead of his likely decider with Andy Murray on Sunday. That is far longer than most expected.

"On paper I wasn't meant to win," the emotional 20-year-old, that rarity of a British clay court specialist, said. "But I believed I could win. You could see by the way I was going in the first two sets that I knew I could win. I knew I had the game to beat him and I was playing well enough. That's probably why I was upset at the end. It's not a nice feeling losing two sets to love up, losing in five. But it happens to people.

"It fell away at the end very quickly," he added. "That's not the way you want it to happen. You're playing for your country, you're playing for your teammates. You feel like you've let them down."

A key part of Edmund's modus operandi was to deny his altered circumstances. "I was just trying to block out the atmosphere, the occasion, and just play tennis, which is something I do every day," he said. "I hit thousands and thousands of balls.

"It couldn't have gone any better. And then, as you say, it turned. The third set he started to get on top of me then things started to fall away. In the fourth set I was struggling physically, and in the fifth set. My legs started to get tired. I could feel them straining a bit and cramping a bit. I lost a bit of confidence in my movement. Pushing off every time I was serving and landing, it was just getting really tight. Obviously it affects your mind on the match."