Tomic relishes the night life

Bernard Tomic has emerged from his much reported issues both off and on court in 2012 to luxuriate in tennis down under this summer.  He has carried himself with a better attitude and his results are evidence of hard work invested in his fitness and technique.  The tournament win in Sydney capped off an unexpected but ideal practice run for the Australian Open where no one would do him any favours and the weight of a nation would once again be upon his shoulders.

The draw actually did assist Tomic for he avoided meeting a top seed in round one, unlike compatriot Hewitt who suffered as a result.  Leonardo Mayer from Argentina is ranked 72 and never been in the top 50 so not quite the threat of a Murray or Djokovic.

Still for Bernard to let his confidence overflow into arrogance would be at his peril.

Thankfully his confidence remained and no need for anything else, because whatever Mayer dished up clearly the Australian could match and better in virtually all departments.  Tomic opened serving and did well, using his height to assist the ball on a swifter trajectory to its intended target and causing Mayer much distress.  While the Argentine player managed to keep pace on the scoreboard for 6 games, holding serve was a far more difficult proposition.  Tomic only lost 2 points on serve for the entire set and his percentage of first delivery was fantastic given the speed with which they were hurtling.

The unorthodox ground strokes are part of Tomic’s problems for all opponents but he no longer tends to rely on them for most of his game – he has improved his court coverage so does not fall victim to drop shots as easily and can retrieve well from both sides to keep a rally going.  His variety of pace and spin were used to perfection to ensure that Mayer remained off balance.  Some of the back hands were top class.

For all of that the only break point available to Tomic came in the 6^th game, and the error from Mayer proved sufficient for the Australian number one to ease through the remaining games and win the set 6-3.

Set 2 was interesting for the fact that Tomic lost his first serve accuracy yet did not let it affect other parts of his game.  Indeed he still managed to keep his unforced errors to a bare minimum while exerting the same pressure on Leonardo that had caused so much first set anxiety.  Mayer blew his chances in the opening game of the second set with a raft of mistakes and although improving his output as the set dragged on, the damage had been done, and it all fell apart when he lost his serve at 2-5 donating the set 6-2 to Tomic plus the honour of serving first in the third.

The best competitive session of tennis occurred in the third set where Leonardo for the only time in the match was able to dictate a fair proportion of rallies and place his shots well enough to set up a series of winners mostly off a much better looking forehand.  However Tomic’s level hadn’t diminished any and 3-3 was the best return for all of Mayer’s improvement.

Enough, thought Tomic, who broke in the seventh game, sealing it with yet another blazing winner.  The Argentine heart now broken, it fell to Tomic to mop up the pieces by claiming the next two games with ease and set forth for round two.  6-3 6-2 6-3 and a lot to like about the performance.