By Jayita Belcourt
Cool, calm and collected. That was Bernard Tomic tonight on Rod Laver arena up against USA’s Sam Querrey in the 2nd round of the Australian Open. Down 1-0 in the second set, Tomic, the ATP ranked #38 looked un-phased. He simply moved across the court in his usual casual and “care-free†manner. Tipping and lobbing the ball in all kinds of unpredictable directions and speeds. He could have been knitting a jumper. The 19 year old seemed completely relaxed on centre court. Unaffected by all of the attention and pressure, Tomic played the big shots when he n00eeded to and defended play beautifully.
Even against Querrey’s mighty serve, Tomic managed to break serve and equalise the sets 1-1. The third set was tight with Tomic only just edging away in the tiebreaker to take the lead 2-1. Some great shots by Tomic and tentative play by Querry saw the fourth set quickly over. Querry faltered on the last point with a double fault.
It is rare to find such a young player who appears so poised, relaxed and sharp on centre court. I wonder what goes through his mind when he’s playing a critical point. He doesn’t seem to be affected by nerves. Nor does he seem affected by his new found fame or the expectations heaped upon him as Australia’s #1 ranked men’s player and “Grandslam hopefulâ€. The man in charge of Australian tennis, Todd Woodbridge, agrees Tomic is handling the pressure well saying Tomic is “handling them [the expectations] better than most people do†and is “getting wins against big players on big courtsâ€. And surely he is.
Tomic went on to power through the match to secure a four set victory 3-6, 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 in just over 2 hours.
Listening to the commentary during the match, Jim Courier was asking what people around the world and in particular, Australians, thought of Tomic. Courier mentioned that even when Tomic is behind or facing a critical moment in the match, he always looks calm and composed and “doesn’t display anything negative on courtâ€. Courier mentioned Peter Sampras in discussion. Stating that Pete had the respect of the nation, but not the popularity. Courier claims Pete was just in the “business†of tennis but didn’t really “give much†to the crowd. Interesting. Tomic, cool, calm and collected seems to be the new flavour of the month for Australia. But who doesn’t like a winner ?
I asked a few Aussies their thoughts. Comments ranged from “he’s a really talented guy with a good future if he can stay focusedâ€, “great player, very relaxed .. with a lot of potentialâ€â€¦ “he’s dynamic, witty, and … outclasses his opponents†… and I like this one.. “unorthodox, untamed and uniqueâ€.
Tomic will now face Ukraine’s #13 seed Alexandr Dolgopolov in the 3rd round of the Australian Open on Friday. Dolgopolov had a tough match against Tobias Kamke and only just managed to secure a victory in a epic 5 setter 4-6, 6-1, 6-1, 3-6, 8-6.
Scoop Malinowski · January 18, 2012 at 7:14 pm
Tomic wears an expression that conveys he is going to win the match no matter what happens, whether he’s down two sets or whatever. Supreme self belief. What an interesting showdown it will be with Dolgopolov who I believe is 2-0 vs. Tomic. Tomic is also handling all the media attention perfectly too, he was just made to be a tennis champion. I liked his straight answers to Jim Courier after the match, he’s humble and mature and enormously confident at the same time. Thanks for the coverage of this fascinating talent Jayita.
Harold · January 18, 2012 at 7:49 pm
Tomic looks like a different player than the one I saw against Cilic at the Open last summer. He didnt show any form that day
Steve · January 18, 2012 at 10:00 pm
Both of these guys have some non-traditional technique to their games. A must see.
I just watched a YouTube clip of the bad call in the Nalby/Isner match. It was bizarre. Bad calls happen but clearly the lines person called it out. Well, I’m sure you all know but Nalbandian should have been able to challenge or or something.
Once Nalbandian figured out what was going on it wasn’t even that long of a wait.
Scoop Malinowski · January 18, 2012 at 11:23 pm
Harold I think Tomic might have tanked that Cilic match because his higher priority was the Davis Cup tie vs. Switzerland. He did not even seem to care at all about losing that match to Cilic just totally went through the motions. That tie with Switzerland was much more important for Tomic IMO,
Scoop Malinowski · January 19, 2012 at 12:27 am
They both play their own styles it should be a lot of fun watching this one. Nalbandian absolutely got robbed and it was a shame to see after all those hours of playing so hard it just about came down to that call. I wonder what Roddick would have done if he was in Nalbandian’s shoes.
Steve · January 19, 2012 at 4:24 am
Just be glad it wasn’t Jeff Tarango.