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Rising hope Bernard Tomic suggested he could mix it with the big boys of world tennis but followed an Australian trend at the Brisbane International.
In what was always going to be a baptism of fire, Tomic started his senior ATP career in style by winning his serve and then breaking third-seeded Fernando Verdasco in front of a raucous home crowd at Pat Rafter Arena.
Three winners produced the break but the excitement didn’t last long for the 16-year-old Gold Coaster on Monday night.
The Spanish Davis Cup hero quickly bounced back and showed his class to take the first-round clash 6-4 6-2 in a little over an hour.
Despite winning just four of the last 16 games, wildcard Tomic wasn’t disgraced and suggested enough with some booming ground strokes he had the artillery to be worthy addition to the tour.
But he failed to measure up to the world No.16, whose slick win came after girlfriend Ana Ivanovic produced the same scoreline against Petra Kvitova but had a much tougher time of it on centre court.
Tomic seemed to struggle once Verdasco clinched the first set as he won just one of the next nine points as the Spaniard took an early break in the second.
But last year’s Australian Open boys champion showed he possessed some fight by saving break points in his next two service games to close to 2-3.
Despite the tenseness of the situation, the lean Tomic let out a laugh at the change when he caused a stir by changing his shirt, prompting a male spectator to yell out “What’s you number Bernie?”
His loss followed defeats by the entire four man Davis Cup team in qualifying on Sunday and Monday as well as defeats to three other Australian hopefuls.
Victorian journeyman Joe Sirianni is the only other Australian to progress to the main draw, and joins another teenage wildcard in Brydan Klein, after winning his three qualifying matches, and will play his first round clash on Tuesday.
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