THE BERNING QUESTION
Tomic’s lofty top-10 claims put to test at Australian Open
QUESTIONS surrounding Bernard Tomic’s claim to a top-10 ranking will be answered today under grand slam pressure at the Australian Open in Melbourne.
Tomic’s hopes of climbing from No.27 into the elite will be threatened by Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci. Seeded to reach at least the third round, the Gold Coast star retains lofty ambitions.
“Well, top 10 is my goal,” said Tomic, who has a career-high mark of No 16.
“Top 20 ... I achieved that from being 130 in the world prior to two surgeries from that. Now my goal is to get to top 10 and stay there many years. You have to work for this. It’s not going to happen overnight. “I think my year last year was pretty solid. I didn’t play many tournaments. I think I pulled out of two Masters Series. “There are a lot of good players in the top 20, top 30 who are top- 10 players. You got to get there. You got to earn it.
“Whether it comes like that or in four, five years, you know, you obviously are going to get your chance.
“If you’re consistent, you work hard, do the right things, you have a big chance at this. There are many, many players from top 20-30 in the world who are amazing tennis players, potentially play better than some of the guys in the top 10. But it’s a different game.
“You have to be more consistent, you have to work for this. It takes a year. It doesn’t take three tournaments.”
At 24, Tomic will contest his ninth Australian Open, desperate to smash through his Melbourne Park glass ceiling – the fourth round.
“IT’S crazy to think how long it’s been. I obviously played my first match here at 16, where I think I won the youngest match,” Tomic said.
“It’s gone pretty quickly. I always played well. Always made a lot of third rounds, fourth rounds. I’d like to go a step further, play better.”
In other news, Nick Kyrgios practised on Hisense Arena yesterday in preparation for a first-round outing against Portugal’s Gastao Elias that could revolve around fitness as much as the explosive righthander’s stroke play.
The 14th seed hopes to capitalise on “a pretty good draw” to satisfy expectations.
“Obviously you get rewarded with a good draw the higher your seeding,” he said.
“I played well last year. Got my ranking to top 30 in the world. I’ve been rewarded with a pretty good draw.
“Saying that, Elias can play some pretty high-level tennis. Everyone in the draw can, can beat anyone on the day.
“I got to go out there and not expect to win the match.
“I (have) got to go out there and just play and we’ll see how it goes.”