Tomic’s wary in return clash
BERNARD Tomic will carry mixed messages into a daunting first-round Wimbledon encounter with German veteran Mischa Zverev tonight.
Tomic spanked Zverev 6-3, 6-2 in the Eastbourne warmup tournament on Thursday but the Gold Coaster conceded taming the crafty left-hander over five sets at Wimbledon was a different challenge.
“I played pretty well in Eastbourne, won some matches which is what I needed there,” Tomic said.
“Playing Zverev again is not easy because he’s, in my opinion, a top-10, top-15 player on grass.
“He’s tricky on this surface. He plays the right game to play on this surface.
“He’s been playing the best in his career, made the quarters of the Australian Open, beat (Andy) Murray so this match is tough regardless of whether I beat him last week.
“I have to play well because it’s Wimbledon and everybody is going to play their best here and he plays the right game, so it’s not easy.”
Zverev is the only top-30 player Tomic has downed this season.
The Gold Coaster revealed he was suffering burnout after hitting the wall late last year.
Since returning to the grass surface, he has started to slowly lift out of the rut.
“I played well in the first round against a quality player (Norman Gombos) opinion,” he said.
“To beat Zverev was good and I had a chance against Gael (Monfils) as well. I had two set points in the first and lost that.
“And, having to play two matches in the one day, I was a bit tired.
“But I’ve been playing well in the last month, beat some quality players on grass and I just feel it’s an opportunity now.
“It’s not easy because, in my opinion, he’s a very tough grasscourt player to play.”
Fellow Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis has vowed to fight fire with fire when he plays Juan Martin del Potro tonight.
“There’s going to be a lot of big hitting, big serving and yeah, I’m just going to give it a crack,” said Kokkinakis, who is in the formative stages of a long comeback from injury. in my