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.
amazonfan
Roar Guru
It's great to see that Tomic is doing well. :D It's interesting for me as Tomic is another Hewitt. I don't particularly like him, however I always like seeing an Aussie do well in international sporting events (one of the very few times I might perhaps describe myself as patriotic.)
atzerodt
Guest
Well done Tommo. He's up against a streaky player in Malisse. The Belgian came within a point of beating Agassi at the 2005 US Open. He reached the W semis in 2002 so he knows his way around a grass court. Last big win was Delray Beach, 2007.
Matt F
Guest
it's certainly looking promising for Tomic right now. Youngest to make this years draw, youngest to reach the 3rd round since djokovic in 2005(?) and youngest to reach the 4th round since michael chang in 1990. He'll also be the youngest player in the top 100 assuming the predictions are accurate. Given the way he dispatched soderling (illness reports aside) he's got a good chance against Malisse (though given he's ranked 40 it's by no means certain. As a former wimbledon semi-finalist he should still start favourite.) A win should see him play djokovic in the quarters which would be a great experience for him. Given hewitt's injuriy problems it seems the baton has definately been passed.