TOMIC PUTS END TO JINX IN OPENER
BERNARD Tomic has his first ATP match win in three months, surviving a deciding set shootout with Portugal’s Joao Sousa in Tokyo.
Tomic had lost four matches in a row since a second-round win at a Wimbledon warm-up event in Eastbourne in mid-June.
The Gold Coaster closed out a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win over Sousa, who is ranked No.58, 91 places better than Tomic, who said in July he felt “trapped’’ in tennis.
Tomic badly needed to end 2017 with some ATP wins and will play eighth seed Diego Schwartzman, of Argentina, or American Donald Young for a quarter-final berth.
The 24-year-old Australian has made two quarter-finals this year but brought up his 10th win for the season in his 18th tournament.
Tomic is playing a different ATP tournament in Asia this week to Nick Kyrgios, who is seeded eighth at the richer China Open.
Kyrgios, who plays Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili in the first round, said last week that Tomic had “lost his way’’.
Ash Barty’s first match at the WTA Beijing event is against world No.3 Elina Svitolina, while countrywoman Daria Gavrilova and Sam Stosur have secondround matches.
GOLD Coaster Kim Birrell, 19, scored a welcome title at the $25,000 ITF Brisbane, with wins over third seed Olivia Rogowska and top seed Asia Muhammad in the last two rounds.