With a guaranteed grand slam seeding for the first time, Bernard Tomic goes into next week’s French Open in the perfect position to cause some damage.
Tomic rose to a career-high No.28 in the world tennis rankings on Tuesday to ensure he’ll be seeded to at least reach the third round after first-round exits from Roland Garros in the past two years.
From there, the 19-year-old Queenslander is capable of rattling the big seeds as he did on his way from the qualifying rounds to the quarter finals at Wimbledon last year, according to Australia’s head of professional tennis, Todd Woodbridge.
“He hasn’t played well in Paris at all before but his performances this year on clay are much better,” Woodbridge said on Tuesday.
“It gives him the chance to get some confidence in Paris, he hasn’t had that before.
“If he gets to the third round, I think that is a real solid result.
“But we know he enjoys taking on the seeds and the big guns on the big courts. If he gets that opportunity, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him cause an upset.”
Tomic has had a solid, if unspectacular, season on clay so far.
He’s racked up five wins and five losses to date, including a second round loss to world No.1 Novak Djokovic at the Rome Masters while the third round in Munich is his best result.
But the grass of Wimbledon in June will be his main target, as it will be for his Davis Cup teammate Lleyton Hewitt.
Woodbridge says dual grand slam winner Hewitt is also capable of making some headway in Paris after recovering strongly from foot surgery in February.
Hewitt, 31, has been training three times a day in Melbourne with Woodbridge and is into the Roland Garros main draw courtesy of a Tennis Australia (TA) wildcard.
“Lleyton is an incredible animal. He just refuses to give in in any way, shape or form,” Woodbridge said.
“He got the TA wildcard. I don’t think we would have given him that if he wasn’t able to get there and win matches. I’m 100 per cent confident he can win matches, given the right draw.”
Woodbridge says Hewitt, now ranked 175 and without the protection of a seed, could win two or three matches before lack of matchplay takes its toll.
But with a few matches under his belt, Woodbridge believes Hewitt still has a big result left in him at Wimbledon, 10 years after he won the title there.
And he can’t see retirement in Hewitt’s short term plans, with the Olympics in July and a September Davis Cup tie against Germany driving him on.
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