Over the weekend, Australia’s Bernard Tomic defeated defending champion Ivo Karlovic in three sets at the Claro Open in Bogota, Colombia. Tomic made the most of his wildcard entry and there is no doubt this result will only prove a positive step in his comeback, but just as attributable to his success may well be the new found competition he finds from Australia’s next generation of tennis stars.
This competition from youngster such as Nick Kyrgios, Thanasi Kokkinakis and Luke Saville can only have a positive outcome for the controversial Queenslander.
Last week, Australia’s Fairfax Media reported that Tomic’s management company, IMG has dumped him. The report quoted IMG as highlighting the amicable nature of this parting but it is incredibly tempting to see this as marketers looking to Australia’s new tennis talent. These young men don’t tank, they don’t have parents whose behavior is questionable and so far, they have not been photographed getting lap dances.
It’s impossible to not make some fairly obvious connections between this parting of the ways with IMG and with Tomic’s somewhat troubled public image.
There is no doubt that the Australian media can be incredibly harsh on young talent. One minute Bernard Tomic was heralded as our great tennis hope. He was presented as a young man who could lift this once proud tennis nation back to the giddying heights of an inform Pat Cash from the 1980s. Or perhaps he could help us to relive the graceful sportsmanship of Pat Rafter in the 1990s or even take over from the dogged determination of Lleyton Hewitt in the early twenty first century.
It is fair to say that Bernard Tomic has had expectations and pressure placed on him. It appears that what Tomic needed and has needed all along is competition from other young Australian tennis players, coupled with the insecurity of relying on wildcards to get into Grand Slams once he was ranked outside of the Top 100.
This is what appears to have dragged him finally to apply himself at the sport that has made him a household name.
With this in mind, it is fair to suggest that the success of other young Australian tennis players can only be good for Bernard Tomic. It is this lack of competition in the past that has been to Tomic’s detriment. If you take the kind of rhetoric that surrounds capitalist beliefs, that competition encourages and fosters excellence, then you may argue Tomic’s success over the weekend is an example of how he his benefitting from Australia’s next generation of tennis players outshining him.
This is inline with comments Australian doubles champ and tennis mentor, Todd Woodbridge made to Fairfax Media.
“The turning point in some ways for Bernard has been that [Kyrgios] has come along and taken the limelight off him and I don’t think he’s really liked that too much,” Woodbridge said. “It’s been a catalyst to turning around and having a really good result.”
There’s no need to recap Tomic’s long list of misdemeanors, other than to comment just how damaging they must have been for his sponsors, but without any other young Aussie tennis talent, sponsors may well have stayed with him hoping for either an improvement in his behavior or the emergence of another player.
BOOM!
Hello Wimbledon.
Nick Kyrgios played the sort of Wimbledon debut that young tennis players can only dream of. There was the miraculous saving of nine break points against Frenchman and former top ten player, Richard Gasquet. Then there was the miracle of all miracles, the win over the then world’s number one, Rafael Nadal.
For keen followers of tennis, Kyrgios’s success at Wimbledon would not have been totally surprising. In saying that, I doubt many would have bet their houses on him beating Nadal, but those in the know, know he’s not a chump.
We also know that his good mate, Thanasi Kokkinakis is also developing nicely as another young up and coming player. Not far behind is Luke Saville, who is also beginning to make the steps from former junior number one to a player at the senior level. Saville beat another youngster beginning to make waves on the senior tour, Dominic Thiem in the first round of Wimbledon.
Australian sponsors and advertisers no longer have just one young potential Australian tennis star to vie for. Kyrgios’s success, along with his fellow young players will undoubtedly eat into the limited advertising market that Tomic once had just about to himself. And let’s not forget that in this mix, veteran Lleyton Hewitt is certainly not going anywhere, winning Newport last week. Then there is someone like Sam Groth who is rebuilding his career and getting his tennis back on track. This year’s Australian Open saw Groth feature heavily in KIA advertising.
Seeing Bernard Tomic win in Colombia over the weekend is welcome news not just for Australian tennis fans but for Tomic fans, too. Mixed in with this success is Tomic finally having some much needed competition from his compatriots to spur him on in his success.
There is no doubt that only Bernie can take his A game onto the court, but that A game may come out more often as he has Australia’s next generation of tennis players snapping at his heels.
Let’s hope that we are at the dawning of a new and exciting age of Australian tennis.
Thank you for reading. Please take a moment to follow me on Twitter – @katesmart12. Support LWOS by following us on Twitter – @LastWordOnSport – and “liking” our Facebook page.
For the latest sports injury news, check out our friends at sports injury alert.
