Australia is renowned for building up the hopes of young talent only to sit back and gleefully watch those hopes race down the gurgler. But when do hope and the promise of great things transform into wasted talent?
When does the descent from contender to journeyman begin and how far along this slippery slope is Bernard Tomic?
Tomic found himself making the evening news for another tanking effort at last week’s Mexican Open in Acapulco.
After retiring mid-match against American Donald Young, citing the temperature of 27 degrees as ‘unbearable’, he unbelievably returned to the court two hours later to play in a doubles match.
What adds to the strangeness of his behaviour in Acapulco is he was last year’s runner up. Not even the thrill of trying to do one better this year could motivate the Queenslander.
Sadly, this behaviour isn’t out of the ordinary. His unfortunate moniker of ‘Tomic the Tank’ has been building up for the last few years.
He infamously holds the record for the quickest defeat in the ATP, losing to Finn Jarkko Nieminen in 28 minutes, in Miami in 2014. Last year he earned the unenviable title of the man on the ATP with the most in-match retirements, with four.
He’s quite the contrast to Roger Federer who has never retired mid-match.
With this in mind and with Tomic once again on the outer with Australia’s Davis Cup campaign, can we now say he’s gone from contender to journeyman?
Firstly, let’s be clear about what a journeyman is and isn’t.
Contrary to the work experience kid Channel Seven hired to drum up interest in the tennis this past summer, Spain’s David Ferrer is not a journeyman. The Spaniard has the most wins of any man on the ATP who has not won a Grand Slam.
Also contrary to the ineptitude of some American news outlets, Rio silver medalist Juan Martin del Potro is also not a journeyman.
The Argentine, who won the 2009 US Open Championships, has been sidelined for the last two years with injury. His run at the Olympics and his comeback in 2016 was nothing short of a fairytale, coming from an immensely talented player.
Journeymen do not have fairytales.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a journeyman is “an experienced reliable worker, athlete, or performer especially as distinguished from one who is brilliant or colorful”.
We can say Tomic is an experienced tennis player. He turned pro nine years ago and has three career titles.
The final part of this definition is interesting, especially in light of Nick Kyrgios’ invitation to appear at New York’s Madison Square for a World Tennis Day exhibition earlier this week.
Krygios’ immense talent and increased marketability are in stark contrast to Tomic, even though the pair shares a long history of poor behaviour.
Krygios possesses the brilliance and colour that according to the above definition eludes the journeyman. Brillance and colour elude Tomic.
Tomic may not be a journeyman in the style of Julien Benneteau, who has never won an ATP title, but it is clear Tomic’s career is heading down a path not nearly as illustrious as the one he or Australian tennis fans hoped for.
He is honest when quizzed about his work effort or lack of it, but Tomic’s frank admissions that he doesn’t work hard enough is not going to bring him back into the fold of contender.
Nor are his promises that he’ll work harder in 2017.
As his ranking continues to slide it’s now or never for Bernard Tomic to decide if he is going to be a genuine contender or slouch off as a career journeyman.
The days of tennis players peaking at 24 and waltzing off into the sunset of retirement at the age of 25 are over. However, at 24, it’s unlikely Tomic will advance into the top ten or hold aloft a Grand Slam trophy unless something drastic changes.
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