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Pat Rafter believes rising Australian tennis hope Bernard Tomic has the smarts to be a top player, provided he can get himself fit enough.
Former world No.1 Rafter gained a close perspective on Tomic by playing alongside him in a doubles match as part of the World Tennis Challenge in Adelaide, and reckoned the gangly 17-year-old still had much to hone before he could be a successful ATP tour player.
Tomic posted useful wins over American Robby Ginepri and Czech Radek Stepanek in his first two matches at the WTC, though he remains a diamond in the rough as opposed to the finished product, according to Rafter.
“There’s a lot of things, a lot of little things (to work on), but he’s a smart kid, he’s one of those guys who seems to work out a situation really well,” Rafter said.
“I think he’ll adapt his game to suit (different situations) at the time, it’s one of those things where you don’t know how a kid reacts when that comes at him.
“But he hasn’t stopped growing yet, he’s a big kid.
“When he stops growing then he’s really got to start getting up on his toes and really trying to be a good athlete because it’s really important – if he’s a good athlete he’ll be a good player.
“He’s got other great attributes I haven’t seen in his game before, he’s got really nice hands and that type of thing, but there’s a lot he can work on.”
The recent feud between Tomic and Lleyton Hewitt had not escaped Rafter’s gaze, but he declined to comment on the matter, saying he did not know both sides of the argument.
However Rafter was more forthcoming on his plans to invigorate player development in Australia, as he counts down to an Australian Open meeting with Tennis Australia (TA) officials.
“We’ll all sit down during the Aussie Open, I’ll sit down with Tennis Australia guys and also a few of the boys (former players) and go through what we think is right for player development,” he said.
“We won’t know how it pans out until we go through everything, I want to hear their side of it all, it’s important to hear how they’re structured and then what we can do around that.
“We’ll go in there, we’ll get the best guys like Darren (Cahill) who knows how it works, a few of the guys like that, and a few in TA and go through it.”
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