Key moments in time often define great players. This has been shown on many occasions in many sports, but tennis seems to have more than most because of the one-on-one battles the sport provides.
In essence, it is a fight to the death where the last man standing is the winner. This in particular happens when young players defeat those who are well established in the game, high in the rankings or just about to retire.
Bernard Tomic last Saturday provided his key moment in time defeating Robin Soderling, the fifth seed in straight sets in a clinical display of tennis.
But before I speak about Tomic, let’s rewind the clock back a decade or so.
In 1996, 20-year-old Australian Mark Philippoussis created one of the biggest upsets in the Australian Open defeating No.1 seed and world No.1 Pete Sampras in straight sets. It was Philippoussis’s arrival on the big stage.
A year later he would end up as a grand slam finalists at the US Open and a two-time Davis Cup winner. Move forward to 1998 and Australian Lleyton Hewitt at his home event would win the Adelaide tournament, defeating former world No.1 Andre Agassi in the semi-finals. Hewitt, like Philippoussis, would go on to win two Davis Cup titles plus two grand slam titles and would also become world No.1.
For others they used whole tournaments to create their presence on the sporting arena. For both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, their grand slam success at the French Open in 2005 and Wimbledon in 2003 respectively marked their arrival as great tennis players.
Tomics victory against Soderling reminded me of that famous night at Melbourne Park in 1996 when Philippousis swept Sampras off the court because that’s exactly what Tomic did to Soderling.
Tomic played what I like to call tempo tennis. Tennis that is run at a certain speed in order to suit the game style of Tomic and un-nerve the No.5 player in the world and it worked like a treat. After the first set Soderling did not know what to do because Tomic bombarded the Swedish player with both slow shots and power shots which made Soderling make unforced errors.
The dominance of the result was simply staggering and it felt like Tomic was No.5 and Soderling No.155.
But can this be the start of a career of excellence for Australia’s new number one? Well, time will tell on that scenario.
Tomic has all the qualities to do it.
He can confuse opponents through his tempo tennis but also at the same time he can provide power to create winners from the baseline a key ingredient for beating the world’s best. Tomic’s first serve is also great, highlighted by the fact that he out served Soderling in the fourth round through serving more aces.
Despite this he has his flaws.
Earlier this season Tomic capitulated and let easy points and games go which resulted in lost sets. This happened against Florian Mayer at Brisbane, Alexandr Dolgopolov at the Sydney International and Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open where he lost a set after being up 4-0 in the second set.
Even at Wimbledon this has been shown with Tomic almost losing in the qualifying stage and almost to Igor Andreev in the second round.
Tomic second serve is also shaky at times and he relies on his first serve a little bit too much.
However, putting the negatives to one side, his talent can’t be disputed and with a quarter final showdown against Novak Djokovic awaiting him and a decent ranking, Tomic is certainly going to get the chance to show his talent.
Let’s just hope he can continue this march forward because Australia has been waiting a long time for a successor to Lleyton Hewitt.
What time does Tomic play? Bernard Tomic faces Novak Djokovic on Wimbledon’s No. 1 Court at 10PM AEST. The Roar will have a live blog and scores for the match.
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