Tomic vows to curb wild ways

BERNARD Tomic agreed with Davis Cup coach Todd Woodbridge that he needed his tennis and not his talent to earn wild-cards into events.

Tomic received his free entry into Melbourne next Monday after beating three top-100 players in Sydney. But beating a fourth -- this time inside the top 50 -- proved too much.

The 18-year-old took the first set 7-6 (7-3) against Ukraine's Alexandr Dolgopolov but made a mess of the second losing 6-1 on Tuesday. Then heavy rain came and the pair were forced to resume their first-round match yesterday. Tomic could not retrieve his first-set form losing the third 6-2.

Regardless, he has his third straight Melbourne wild-card in the bag after beating No 100 Igor Kunitsyn, No 60 Michael Berrer and No 72 Luzasz Kubot in qualifying for the Sydney International.

But Tomic accepted that TA's men's coach Woodbridge was entitled to demand better results from the immensely tall and talented 18-year-old from the Gold Coast.
"Look, I agree with him. I didn't play a lot. Brisbane I didn't play that good. I had one match up there and it went very fast," Tomic said of his loss to Germany's top-30 player Florian Mayer.

"So I really needed something here. I think I played really good to beat all those players. And to play against a guy today, and almost have a chance against a top-40 player, I knew it was going to be a tough match. I'm really pleased, so I can say that the decision, the wild-card they gave to me, I'm happy and I'll try my best and play well next week."

As for all the ongoing debate about whether Tomic deserved it or not, he was quick to flick that back to TA.

"Look, it's their decision at the end of the day. I can't decide if I'm going to get it or not," Tomic said. "I can only try to play tennis as much as I can. Yes, I had a bit of a strange December, but now it's January.

"I mean, it's their opinion. Everyone has got their own opinion; I've got mine. You don't think about those things. You just play tennis. I think the wild-card that they gave, they gave for a reason . . . obviously saw I was playing well here. You know, we'll see on Monday or Tuesday."

Tomic heads to Melbourne trying to make the second round of the year's first major for the third time in a row.

"I'm moving a lot better and serving a lot better. That's why I can I think consistently beat players now; whereas before my serve wasn't working and I was relying more on my ground strokes and I didn't move as good."

Tomic has done more than any other Australian in the two main lead-up tournaments to Melbourne, having strung four matches together.

There were six Australians -- three men and three women -- in the singles draw in Sydney and only one, Sam Stosur, made it to the second round.

In Brisbane two players, Matt Ebden (WA) and Jarmila Groth (Vic), played three matches and made it to the quarter-finals. The other nine Australians fell in the opening two rounds.

Groth is at least still alive in the Hobart International, once again reaching the quarter-finals with a 6-4 7-6 (5-5) in the rain-affected tournament.

Anastasia Rodionova, world No 62, ran into a red-hot Li Na in Sydney on Monday and was gone again after one match, repeating her Brisbane result.

Sally Peers (Vic), the world No 154, beat top-25 player Alisa Kleybanova and then No 196-ranked Ebden beat fellow Australian John Millman and then eight seed and No 40 Denis Istomin to reach the quarters.