Even though Bernard Tomic‘s upstart Wimbledon run ended with a quarterfinal loss in four sets to Novak Djokovic, it was easy to root for the prodigious 18-year-old Australian.
But he sure looks like a pain to play against.
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Despite his 6-foot-4 frame, Tomic is a bit like that guy in high school who no one realized was an elite athlete because he wasn’t on the varsity football or basketball teams.
He doesn’t overpower like Rafael Nadal. He’s not the tennis version of classical music like Roger Federer, and he doesn’t have the aggressive all-around game of Andy Murray.
Instead, the Croatian-bred Queensland native takes a little bit off a groundstroke here, slices and dices there and seemingly finds a way to put everything an opponent sends at him back into play.
As the youngest quarterfinalist since 1986 when Boris Becker was the same age, Tomic also had the perfect matchup Wednesday with familiar hitting partner Djokovic, who may be supremely fit but maintains a hint of mental fragility and a propensity for outward bursts of frustration when the going gets tough.
With little margin for error, Tomic still didn’t have enough to overcome one of the reigning big four in men’s tennis. Djokovic prevailed 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5.
But Tomic’s ranking — he entered Wimbledon at No. 158 — and his career are both poised for a big leap. Should he start to contend regularly, which may require his notoriously ambitious and heavy-handed father to loosen the leash, he’s got the potential to leave a long trail of opponents shaking their heads and to raise plenty of trophies.
