Bernard Tomic’s struggles..

Back in the summer of 2011, Bernard Tomic was setting alight the tennis world with an impressive Wimbledon run, making the quarter finals as a qualifier. His mature performances that tournament led to many believing they were seeing a  grand slam champion and/or World No.1 in the making.

Since then, things haven’t been so easy for the 19 year-old. Tomic is currently on a six match losing streak, doing very little to impress after a promising start to the year where he made the fourth round of the Australian Open, losing in straight sets to Roger Federer.

The Aussie’s temperament has always been questioned and he is never far from controversy – Tomic and his team famously rejected the requests of Lleyton Hewitt for a practice hit. Hewitt’s manager claimed that the reason given for this was that Hewitt was considered “not good enough” but this was a claim denied by Tomic himself. More recently, Tomic was involved in a police stand-off over a dispute about traffic tickets he had accrued in his Orange BMW M3.

Much like another Australian with Croatian heritage in Jelena Dokic, Tomic’s controversies are not just on himself but also due to an overbearing father. At 16, Tomic was banned from the ITF Tour for a month after his father, John, had forced him to default the match by walking off due to the bad decisions he felt he had been on the wrong side of.

He is also alleged to have threatened Tennis Australia officials with the possibility of his son switching countries and representing Croatia on a national level after feeling Bernard was treated badly by the organisers of the Australian Open in 2010. During the Miami Masters, Bernard even asked the umpire if he could remove his dad from the stands as he felt he was an annoyance.

While Tomic has made his dislike of the clay clear in the past, he at least looks like is trying to do something to improve it by playing as many tournaments as he can on it, rather than shying away like some players do.

In an interview for the ATP website before the Monte Carlo Masters, Tomic felt he had new-found confidence and it was there to be seen as he defeated Denis Istomin in the first round to earn his first main tour win on clay. He felt that is issues on the dirt were mental and physical as opposed to a skill-set not suited to the surface.

“That’s the key for me playing on clay, is for me to feel physically fit. You know, today I felt good.  I’m starting to learn how to play on clay……… It’s a little bit more endurance.  I’ve got to put in my head to compete and to stay in there.  If I do that, then I can play with anyone on this surface.  Not like the last few years where if I’m down on clay, I stopped believing in myself and it’s tough to come back.  I keep complaining that clay’s not good.  You know, you just got to stay positive, play your game.”

Unfortunately since then, the results have been slow to follow but he did pick up his first French Open win with a straight sets victory over Andreas Haider-Maurer, but was dispatched of with ease in the next round by Santiago Giraldo. Most recently, Tomic was defeated (and bagelled) by Benoit Paire and lost to Thomasz Bellucci after having a 4-1 lead and a great chance to at least take a set against a good clay courter.

While it is definitely far too early in Tomic’s young career to write off his chances of ever succeeding on clay, major improvement will be needed in 2013 if he is to reach the ranking heights that many are expecting of him.

With the clay season now over for himself, Tomic has the chance to redeem himself on grass in the Olympics after a poor Wimbledon outing where he was sent packing in the first round by David Goffin. The loss of 350 points is a big issue for him and may see his ranking slip a fair bit if he does not have a good US hard court season.

Tomic, along with Ryan Harrison and Milos Raonic, is only one of three players born in the 90’s to be in the current top 50 so even if he hasn’t lived up to expectations from last year he is still progressing well for age and has plenty of time before he can be written off as overhyped.

With very few ranking points gained pre-US Open last year, a good performance in the Olympics, Cincinnati or Canada could set him up nicely for a seeding at the grand slam and a good chance to make the second week with a favourable draw. Tomic is already a winner there as a junior in 2009, having beaten Chase Buchanan in the final.

Even if Tomic has not gained the results on the clay swing this season, I think the experience will be good for him and he can only improve. For now, he needs to concentrate on putting some good results together in North America and defending the points he gained in Asia. If he maximises his potential as many think, in three or four years we could be seeing Tomic following the footsteps Lleyton Hewitt in picking up a grand slam or even world no.1 after the current dominant crop retire or fall out of contention.