Murray: ‘Bernard Tomic gets a bit of a hard time’
World number two Andy Murray has backed Bernard Tomic to reach the top 10 and said he thinks the Australian gets treated unfairly.
Murray won their fourth-round encounter at the Australian Open in straight sets, 6-4 6-4 7-6 (7-4), but said “it was a tricky match” due to the 23-year-old’s ability to read the game and keep his opponent off-balance so effectively.
The Scot was asked after the match what Tomic needed to do in order to take that next step and said the world number 17 had started to display the consistency and poise under pressure of an elite player.
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“[It] seems like he gets a bit of a hard time,” the two-time major champion told reporters.
“I think he’s the youngest player in the top 20. Most years he makes improvements. He’s the number-one player in Australia.
“On the court his personality is very different to someone like a [Nick] Kyrgios, but I think he deals with pressure well.
“I think he plays good tennis at the Aussie Open. He’s performed extremely well in Davis Cup. I think he’s only lost two or three Davis Cup matches.”
“He’ll be a top-10 player, for sure,” Murray added, while admitting the last few steps are the hardest to take.
One of the big knocks on Tomic since he turned professional way back in 2008 has been that he was unable to match the best players physically, and he flagged that as a focal point of climbing into the top 10.
“They’re all very, very fit inside the top three or four. They’re the best players in the world. It doesn’t get much better than that,” said Tomic, who was tipped to win a grand slam by another two-time major winner, Li Na, before the Australian Open.
“I know what it takes to get there. I’m going to work as hard as I can. I’ve been playing fantastic tennis the last month. Continuing what I did last 2015. So I’m very pleased.”
Tomic disappointed with Roger Federer
Tomic’s top-10 ambitions have been placed under a microscope this year after 17-time grand slam winner Roger Federer suggested the 23-year-old was still a long way off the top 10.
It was an interesting barb from the Swiss superstar considering Tomic was as low as 71 in January of 2015 but finished the year in the top 20 and is currently ranked a career-high 17th in the world.
The German-born Tomic clearly took offence to Federer’s remarks, firing back by saying Federer was “nowhere near” the level of world number one Novak Djokovic.
Tomic explained his response after his loss to Murray.
“I just would have liked Roger to say, ‘Okay, look, he had an amazing 2015. Went from 70, 80 to being 16’, [but] he didn’t mention it. I just felt like maybe Roger said the wrong thing,” Tomic, seeded 16th in Melbourne, told reporters.
“I’m working. I went from where I was to 16, 17 in the world [last year]. It’s an amazing achievement.
“I’m there. I’m six, seven spots away [from the top 10]. When I’m playing my best tennis, I’m a top-five player in the world.”
So all-encompassing is his quest for a rankings boost, Tomic appeared unsure as to whether he would bother with the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in August.
“I forgot about that. It is, absolutely [on the cards]. I don’t know which month it is,” he said.
“I mean, there’s no points. You have to play all week. I would love to play the Olympics. It’s huge.
“But maybe for my position, I don’t know. Because there’s no points, I don’t know.
“I’d love to play, but it’s a long way away. Anything can happen until then. If I’m fit and ready, why not play?”