Bernard Tomic delighted his home crowd after dismissing French world No.71 Nicolas Mahut 6-4, 6-2, at the Brisbane International.
Tomic experienced a tricky start to the match against the French veteran as he faced two break points in the opening game. After successfully fending off both points, the eight seed was eventually broken in the seventh game by the Frenchman. Despite Mahut having the 4-3 advantage, the Australian broke back immediately in the following game as he increased his form on the court. Tomic then dealt another blow to Mahut. As the world No.71 served to stay in the set, Tomic nudged himself to his first set point. He required only one chance after he hit a stunning cross-court forehand to take the opening set after 36 minutes.
The world No.18 extended his dominance in the match during a lengthy fourth game in the second set. After Tomic squandered three break point chances, Mahut finally prevailed on the fourth after returning the ball into the net to hand the eighth seed a set and 3-1 lead. The lead was almost eradicated a couple games later, after a below-par game from Tomic gave Mahut a break point. The Frenchman failed to convert after returning Tomic’s serve out past the baseline. The costly missed allowed the seventh seed to maintain his lead and move to 5-2. The match was then sealed with an ace out wide from Tomic.
In his first match of 2016 Tomic won 82% of his first serves and converted 3/6 break points. Despite the straioghtforward victory, the Australian No.1 admitted that it was a tough match for him.
“It was not an easy match. He got me at three-all and it was very difficult for me, I wasn’t finding my feet on the court,” Tomic said.
“So I was happy to turn around that first break and I played a really good return game to break back, and after that felt a little bit more comfortable on court.” He added.
The 23-year-old is the only Australian to reach the second round after the five other home players suffered a first round defeat. In the second round, he will play another veteran on the tour, 37-year-old Radek Štěpánek. Stepanek, who won the tournament in 2010, defeated Dušan Lajović in his opening match.
Earlier in the day 8th seed Dominic Thiem was forced to work hard in his opening match against James Duckworth. Thiem is aware of how dangerous the Australian can be after losing to him in the first round at Indian Wells last year. The Austrian ensured that history wouldn’t repeat itself after winning 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, in just under two hours.
Thiem admitted that he was disappointed with how he started his match against Duckworth during a post on his Facebook account.
“3/6 6/4 6/3 against James Duckworth. I started quite badly into the new season by playing a horrible first game which eventually led to a lost first set. But I fought my way back into the game, got into the flow and finished my first match successfully. The crowd got to watch a pretty good fight on the sold out center court. I am really happy about this good start into the new year and I am looking forward to playing the next match”. Thiem wrote
In other matches Belgian sixth seed David Goffin moved past Thomaz Bellucci 6-4, 6-4 after an hour and 22 minutes. Victor Troicki experienced a tough opening set before cruising past America’s Steve Johnson 7-6(3), 6-1. Finally, Ivan Dodig ended the dreams of world No.813 Oliver Anderson with a 6-3, 6-2, win. Anderson stunned Dennis Novikov and Tim Smyczek to qualify for the main draw.
