Who is Britain's new Davis Cup sensation Kyle Edmund?

Just 20 years old, the world number 100 and British number three was not fancied to trouble his Belgian opponent as he made his debut in the Davis Cup on Friday afternoon.

In fact, Edmund was effectively written off ahead of his clash against a hugely experienced player in world number 16 David Goffin.

Apart from anything else, it was only Edmund's third-ever five-set match: he played the opening round of the French Open at Roland Garros this summer, but pulled out of the second round injured; and he lost in straight sets at Wimbledon.

But he shrugged off his inexperience and stunned the home fans by tearing Goffin to pieces from the start, breaking the Belgian in the opening game of the match, calmly carrying on to win the set, then racing into a 5-0 lead in the second set before establishing a two-set advantage.

But who is this young star, little-known outside circles of hard-core tennis fans before this week?

Age: 20

Born: In Johannesburg, moved to Yorkshire aged three.

Height: 1.88m (6ft 2in)

Current rank: 100

Highest rank: 99

Greatest achievements: 3 Challenger titles (all this year), and enjoyed a five-set victory in first round of 2015 French Open.

"He's the future of British tennis," wrote Eurosport tennis commentator Chris Bowers before this week's match.

"He's the one member of the victorious British Junior Davis Cup team from 2011 to have pressed on.

"He reached the second round of the French Open in May with a gutsy win over Stéphane Robert after coming through three rounds of qualifying.

"Seeing a Davis Cup place available, he travelled to South America to play on clay, and won the Challenger tournament in Buenos Aires last week. That saw him picked ahead of James Ward for the second singles berth."

Andy Murray himself backed Bowers' assessment, saying he had been hugely impressed with what he'd seen even before Friday.

"Kyle has a lot of weapons on the court and a lot of firepower, it won't be easy for David," said Murray.

"I've practised a lot with Kyle and he's playing very well."

Leon Smith said ahead of the match that Edmund's win at Roland Garros against a home crowd favourite was decisive in getting him that honour.

"He qualified for the French Open and beat home player Stephane Robert with the whole crowd against him," said the British Davis Cup skipper earlier this week.

Former Davis Cup skipper John Lloyd also backed Edmund: "In an ideal situation you would want to blood him a little. But on the other hand Kyle's playing great and going into a match that no one expects him to win.

"You could say it's a gamble, but not really. Hopefully he'll go there and open his shoulders up, just as if it's the first round of Wimbledon against one of the top guys and you just go out and have fun and go out swinging.

"If he wins he's virtually won the Davis Cup for Britain. It's the sort of thing you dream about as a kid. It's like coming on as a sub and scoring the winning goal in the World Cup final. If he beats Goffin he will grab all the headlines.

"And on the other side Goffin knows that if he loses to Kyle tomorrow, the match is over, simple as that," he added.

"Goffin is experienced but he's not an Andy Murray, he's not a top-tenner who stamps all over people," he said.

"He's going up against someone he probably doesn't know much about although I'm sure they've done their homework.

"You are going up against a guy that is not ranked that high but moving up...they are more dangerous.

"You can't feel them out, you know the guys in the top 80, you play them, you know what they do on big points, but Edmund is a kind of wildcard in a sense...

"It's going to be intimidating [for him], you either embrace that or you don't, hopefully Kyle will.

"But if he has any doubts he has the experience of the captain and the bench and it gives you the chance to re-boot at the changeovers. He will need that because when you're on your own and things go bad you can panic and the tennis court, believe me, can be a lonely place."

Win or lose, Edmund will have earned an army of new fans with his gutsy display.

But Bowers has a warning for Edmund should he lose: "A 20-year-old making his Davis Cup debut in a final is a risky business – it happened to Paul-Henri Mathieu in 2002, he ended up losing the decisive fifth match, and has been traumatised by the experience ever since. "