There has been a lot of hype about the young Australian player Bernard Tomic as one of the future stars of the game. In this post I want to take a quick look at his game and tell you why I believe that he will probably have a hard time living up to the hype!
Tomic is one of the few successful teenagers in the men’s game. These days it is extremely difficult to compete with the world’s best before you reach the age of 20 because the physical demands are so big in the game!
At this point Tomic has reached a career high ranking of number 38 at the age of 19, which is a great accomplishment!
Nevertheless, I am sceptical about Tomic ever becoming a Top5 player
and true Grand Slam contender!
The main reason I am skeptical is that Tomic does not seem to play offensive enough on a consistent basis to hurt players like Federer, Djokovic, or Nadal!
Check Out The Highlights Of Tomic vs. Federer
So why exactly do I think Tomic will have problems with ever becoming a Grand Slam contender ?
In order to be a Top5 player these days you need to basically have a great serve, great forehand, great backhand, and be a phenomenal athlete and Tomic is lacking in some of these areas!
Game Analysis
Tomic plays a bit different then most of the other world class players. He is not entirely focused on hitting big serves and heavy forehands and backhands. Instead he plays a lot of slice backhands and mixes things up quite a bit.
Mixing things up a bit alone could be a good thing but Tomic has one big problem:
His average rally shots are not aggressive enough and against the world's best players he will usually spend a lot of time on defense!
Lack Of Heavy Topspin
Tomic does have weapons. He can hit big serves but doesn't do so on a consistent enough basis. Additionally, he can hit a lot of winners with his flat forehand that he can hit quite hard.
The problem with his forehand though is, that he can not hit that flat and hard on a consistent basis and keep the ball in the court. As a result he sometimes hits really hard and flat but on average he lacks the heavy consistent topspin forehand that all the top players have!
Have A Look At His Forehand In Slow Motion:
He Rarely Gets His Racket Low Enough To Hit Heavy Topspin!
The world's best players hit extremely hard forehands with enough topspin to give them a good margin of error. Tomic does not hit his forehand that way and I doubt that he will ever develop the stroke in that manner.
It appears really difficult for Tomic to find ways to pressure the top players enough and I think he would need to make some significant changes to his game to change that in the future!
The good news for Tomic is that he is a superb athlete and moves extremely well around the court for his height. This is one of the main reasons why he has been so successful at a young age in my opinion!
I am very curious to see how he will develop in the next 2-3 years. One more thing to keep in mind is that his game is well suited for grass court Tennis and he got to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon last year. That quarterfinals appearance currently accounts for 385 out of his 1,048 ATP points!
Overall, I think Tomic is going to be a solid Top20 and probably Top10 player throughout his career but in order to be a Top5 player and win Grand Slams he would have to significantly improve certain areas of his game which very few players have done in the past, once they reached such a high level already!
I will have a more in-depth analysis of his game up in the Pro Players section sometime over the next couple of weeks. As usual let me know your thoughts in the comments section below!
