No.6 seed tumbles as Tomic finds feet

BATTLING Bernard Tomic last night enjoyed the best win of his stuttering 2017 season, beating Mischa Zverev to advance to the quarter-finals at Eastbourne.

Tomic, who has dropped to No.60 in the world after a poor first half of the year, downed the sixth seed 6-3, 6-2.

The older brother of rising star Alexander Zverev, Mischa has had a breakout 12 months himself, beating Andy Murray on the way to his first grand slam quarter-final at the Australian Open.

But the 30th-ranked German couldn’t keep pace with Tomic in their secondround encounter.

Tomic needed just a single break to take the opening set.

The Australian lifted on both serve and return in the second set to claim another two breaks and the match in a breezy 51 minutes.

It was the first time Tomic had beaten a player inside the top 50 in 2017.

He will play the winner of France’s second seed Gael Monfils and England wildcard Cameron Norrie for a spot in the semi-finals. NICK Kyrgios will have to create history to win Wimbledon after being seeded 20th yesterday.

While Boris Becker (1985) and Goran Ivanisevic (2001) engineered miracle triumphs as unseeded players, no man has ever lifted the most prestigious title in tennis seeded 20th.

In the 90 years since the All England Club introduced seedings, only David Nalbandian (28) has made the final — in 2002, when he was hammered by Lleyton Hewitt — with a lower seeding than Kyrgios.

The Australian will have to play one of the top 16 seeds from the third round onwards.