Hail the new Australian No. 1 player, Bernard Tomic. With his thumping victory over the World No.5 Robin Soderling, he is poised to break into the top 100 in the ranking after Wimbledon finishes and will rise to a career high of 72 should he beat the Belgian Xavier Mallise in the fourth round on Monday.
At 18 years and eight months, Bernard Tomic is the youngest player standing as Wimbledon enters its second week.
It was the perfect revenge for the the qualifier who notched up the biggest victory of his career dispatching World No. 5 Robin Soderling in straight sets 6-1, 6-4, 7-5 in one hour and 52 minutes.
This turned out to be the biggest upset in the men’s draw at this year’s Championships.
Tomic had to dig deep in his last match against Igor Andreev in which he fought back and came behind from down two sets to love to set up a clash with Robin Soderling, the 5th seed at the tournament who had ousted another Aussie, Lleyton Hewitt in a similar fashion.
The 18 year old had no intention to survive another classic.
He wrapped up the first set in just 19 minutes and Soderling could win a meager seven points. Tomic served flawlessly winning 86 per cent of his first serves and 100 per cent of his second serves.
Soderling took a medical time out early in the second set. But Tomic was ruthless even though the Swede placed greater pressure on the Australian’s serve. Tomic had to save three break points and Soderling’s own serve improved. But he could not prevent the Australian from breaking his serve in the fifth game.
From thereon, it was an uphill battle for Soderling. The third set proved to be the most tight one and at 5-all, Tomic seized the decisive break.
He was nervous as he served out the match. With a service winner, he clinched the finest victory of his young career.
His reward is a fourth round meeting with Xavier Mallise.
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