Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
It’s 15 years since an Aussie kid shook up Wimbledon by reaching the quarter-finals at the tender age of 18, the youngest to get to that stage of the men’s draw since the 1985 wunderkind champ himself, Boris Becker.
But now at 33 and having gone through an extraordinary undulating, polarising career during which he was once dubbed the tour ‘bad boy’ who’d squandered an enviable talent, Bernard Tomic is back in London, a very changed, admirable figure.
The misunderstood youngster once perceived to not care a jot about the sport is not afraid these days to admit he’s a bloke who really needs his tennis as he battles on in its unglamorous hinterland, trying to return to a grand slam main draw for the first time in five years.
At Roehampton, five kilometres from Wimbledon’s All England Club, ‘Bernie’ will set out on his ninth qualification campaign in any slam since he last played in the 2021 Australian Open.
The man mischievously dubbed “Tomic the Tank Engine” by fans surely can’t be faulted for effort any more as he’s battled back up to 192 in the world, a huge improvement on the nadir of his career when he sank to No.825 back in August 2022.
This year alone, he’s slogged away in low-profile events in New Caledonia, Australia, USA, Mexico, China, Tunisia, France and the Netherlands, before returning for a crack at Wimbledon which he last tried to qualify for in 2021.
But if he’s to make it through the tough three rounds of qualifying — he hasn’t got past the second round in his last eight attempts to qualify for a slam — he may have to defeat another rejuvenated Aussie, Chris O’Connell, who’s on a high after winning his first grass-court event, the Nottingham Open, on Saturday.
The pair will meet in the second round of qualifying should Tomic defeat Japan’s world No.254 Kaichi Uchida and No.32 seed O’Connell, who’s set to move up to No.123 in the rankings after his Nottingham win, gets past rising Austrian youngster Joel Schwaerzler, the world No.174.
It was a big triumph in Nottingham for 32-year-old O’Connell, who ended up sharing a car to London with the bloke he beat in the final. Like the Aussie, his Finnish mate Otto Virtanen is also seeking qualification for Wimbledon.
There are six Aussie men in action on Monday – Tristan Schoolkate, Dane Sweeny, Alex Bolt and James McCabe joining O’Connell and Tomic – with a heatwave set to make life uncomfortable for them in that neck of south-west London.
Elsewhere, Australians are enjoying the sunshine as they build towards Wimbledon at various events around Europe.
On Sunday, Ajla Tomljanovic, Kim Birrell and Aleksandar Vukic, who are among the dozen Aussies who’ve already booked their spots at SW19, won Eastbourne qualifiers to ensure they can play in this week’s grass-court curtain raiser on England’s south coast.
In Mallorca, Wimbledon-bound Adam Walton also went through qualifying on Sunday to get to the first round of the Spanish ATP 250 event.
