Tomic’s latest hope
GOLD Coast’s Bernard Tomic will head into French Open qualifying with renewed confidence despite his loss to fellow Queenslander John Millman at the Open du Pays d’Aix Challenger final.
Tomic had been winless since Australian Open qualifying in January, but will head to the capital Paris next week with a sense of optimism after his strong run on his least preferred surface.
Once ranked as high as world No.17, Tomic will return to the top 200 after his Provence surprise.
Brisbane’s Millman, meanwhile, has earnt himself a career-high ranking with his crushing final victory.
Top-seeded Millman will climb 12 spots to world No.58 after downing Tomic 6-1, 6-2 to claim the $200,000 claycourt title in the south of France.
Rain delayed the final and forced the match indoors to a hard court, but Millman made up for lost time by sweeping aside his fellow Queenslander in 48 minutes.
“That doesn’t normally happen but, due to the weathto er, they had to,” Millman said after crunching nine aces and breaking Tomic’s serve four times.
“Obviously it was important get a good start due to the change of conditions.
“It was important to serve well indoors and back myself from the back of the court.”
A finalist at last month’s Hungarian Open, Millman’s success continued his impressive form ahead of the French Open starting in two weeks.
“Very happy with the preparations for Roland Garros,” he said.
“I wanted to come to Europe early to give myself the best chance going into the tournament and I’m really happy with how I’m playing.”
The 29-year-old will continue his build-up this week as top seed at another Challenger event in Heilbronn, Germany. “Even though it’s not easy to get to,” he said.
“There are strikes with the trains in France and flights are a nightmare so we are driving nine hours tomorrow.”
Millman’s victory was his first over Tomic, who had to settle for a rankings leap of 52 places back to the world’s top 200 after winning four consecutive clay-court matches for the first time to reach the final.