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WESTERN & SOUTHERN OPENAugust 12, 2012Bernard TomicCINCINNATI, OHIO B. TOMIC/R. Harrison THE MODERATOR: Questions for Bernard. Q. You've been playing well the last couple weeks. BERNARD TOMIC: Yeah, I've been playing good the last fortnight. I'm happy the way I'm playing here today. Last week as well was good for me to win my first round after a good six, seven weeks. I think I played good against Novak, as well, picked up good confidence. Today was a good match. I felt like Ryan played well. I played well and managed to win in the end. Q. Can you talk a little bit about some of the development in youth tennis in Australia. I know it's been a little bit of a drought since Lleyton. BERNARD TOMIC: Yeah, if you look back a few years, it wasn't that good. Obviously, Lleyton was there. But I think now this year's just shown us we can actually play. The guys belong here very well. Marinko is playing well. Matt is doing good. They're getting closer to top 50. They're at the 70, 60 mark. We've improved a lot. It's good to see the Australian tennis improving a lot. For me it's huge to win Davis Cup one day. If you're going to do that, you need a good team around you, you need good players in there. I feel they're improving, getting better. It's good to see something like that. Q. You had a good Australian summer. Following up, looked like it was a little bit difficult result‑wise. What do you attribute that to? BERNARD TOMIC: Everyone has their up‑and‑downs. I think I managed to play really well last year, during Wimbledon. I played pretty solid throughout the end of the year. At the start of the Australian Open season, I played really well, I thought. Then it was difficult for me. I think I went through a few months where I was winning a few matches or two, then started not winning matches for about a month. That was pretty difficult. But I'm happy I'm picking up now. I'm playing pretty good, confident. I'm just happy I get a chance to win matches now and get on the track that I was at the start of the year. Q. What is the key, like today? You could have lost the second set. What is the difference between actually doing that and winning compared to when you were unable to do that? BERNARD TOMIC: If you look, tennis comes down to sometimes one point. It's the most important point of the match. When that comes, if you don't take it... If you actually get it and win, it's huge. I've gone through so many positions in my junior career where I've been down the first round, just managed to escape. I've won titles. I think it's similar like that in the game now. Everyone playing in the top hundred is good, they're there for a reason. I think the only guys that stand out are the guys in the top four, five, that are a bit different. I think it comes down to playing a tennis match one point, two points. If you take those opportunities sometimes at 4‑All, breakpoints at 3‑All, you can win the set. Today I managed to come back from two set points down. I hit a good serve, played a good point. Look, if it was going to be the third set, it would have been different. I would have been a little bit tired and Ryan would have played a little more confident. I think the crowd was on his side. Tennis comes down to a few points, and I think the better players get those points. Q. When you go into a match like this, do you think like he's going to be somebody you're going to be playing for a long time? BERNARD TOMIC: It's a bit like that. It's funny how you play the older guys growing up on the ATP Tour. To get the opportunity to play Ryan or someone of that age, it's a bit strange. But it's a good thing. I enjoyed it today. I'm sure we both wanted to win. I think I played really, really well the first, and the second I was up a break. He played well to come back and take it to a tiebreak. Q. How far off do you think your generation is from the top four? BERNARD TOMIC: With the top four now? I mean, it's hard to say. You can't just replace the players that are there now in the top four. I'd love to put myself there and players like Milos, Ryan, Grigor in the next three or four years. To say that, we're in the most difficult time of tennis. The guys in the top three, four, they're showing us why they're the legends of the game. Back I think 10 years it was much easier ‑ not easier ‑ but in a way there were 20 players that could win a Grand Slam. Now I think there's three players, and Murray is still struggling. It's just a difficult time for young guys. We have to keep working, improving. I think our time will come in the next few years. But we've got to work hard, for sure. Q. The last few years a lot of guys have said the speed of these courts in Cincinnati has been quick compared to other hard courts. Would you agree with that? BERNARD TOMIC: Yeah. Actually I think it's the ball flies through the air a bit, similar to Indian Wells, but not as much. I think Indian Wells flies a lot more. I think I prefer it. It suits the way I'm playing lately. I'm serving pretty good. The second serve bounce is really difficult to return on. The courts kick up. It has advantage on players that serve big, these courts. I'm playing well, feeling good. Hopefully I can continue. Q. How long have you been with Nike? BERNARD TOMIC: Probably since I was 15. Q. How do you think they picked you? BERNARD TOMIC: You got to ask them that. I think they picked me out of a hat (laughter). It was a random pick. Q. Because you have so many different options in your game, does point construction become challenging sometimes? BERNARD TOMIC: Absolutely. I think sometimes, it's funny, on a shot, when players have I think one or two options, I seem to have four or five. But sometimes I miss the ball. It's weird, you know, when you have an opportunity and a point, if I do the right thing, I should win. Sometimes I have three or four options I should do, players don't expect me to do it. Sometimes it costs me. Other times people are like, Wow, how did you do that? It's got to be simple. You have to play tennis simple, not try to impress the crowd, going for shots that you're not usually doing. I think I'm doing that well. I did that well today I think. Q. How do you keep it simple for yourself? BERNARD TOMIC: Win matches, I guess. That's anybody's simple, I think. You know, the last year I've learnt a lot on tour. It's an important thing. I've gone through a lot of matches where I should have won and I've lost because I haven't been keeping it simple. I've lost matches because of stupid shots where I wouldn't do on practice, where I wouldn't go for. You just learn over time what the right tennis is for you, how to concentrate, focus, put all your energy into playing the right tennis. Then you feel comfortable, not playing things that you're not used to in matches. The thing with me, sometimes I let my foot off the pedal when I'm winning. Sometimes it costs me. I think today shows I can really compete and play well. Q. Tennis is not a contact sport, but the lob today... BERNARD TOMIC: That was a bit strange. I didn't know what was going on because I turned my head. I didn't think he was going to get to it. I heard things, you know, like... I turned back, I saw the camera upside down, I realized something went wrong. Q. Have you sold the famous car? BERNARD TOMIC: Yeah. Q. Got a good price for it? BERNARD TOMIC: I swapped it for something else. Q. Which is what? BERNARD TOMIC: I don't know. A Toyota Yaris (laughter). FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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