Bernard Tomic is a young Australian professional tennis player. Experts see him as one of the most promising young players in the game today. At the young age of 19 he has already achieved a world ranking of number 34. He has a somewhat unusual playing style compared to most of the other top players in todays game!
A Typical Tomic Point
Patient Tennis With Some Built In Surprises!
Biography
Tomic was born in 1992 in Stuttgart, Germany. The family moved to Australia when Bernard was three years old. His dad is also his coach and has been heavily involved in his tennis development.
Tomic had a phenomenal junior career. He won the prestigeous Orange Bowl title in the 12s and 14s age division and in 2008 became the youngest winner ever of the Australian Open juniors title! One year later he ended his junior career with another big victory at the US Open junior tournament.
As a professional his rise to the Top100 took a little while. He finished 2009 and 2010 inside the Top300 player in the world. 2011 he had his big breakthrough at Wimbledon, where he reached the quarterfinals and lost to Rafael Nadal. This is his best result as a professional so far and got him into the Top100 players in the world for the first time.
Game Analysis
Bernard Tomic has a rather unique playing style. He is not one of those guys that consistently hits huge serves, forehands, and backhands. Instead, he changes the pace of the rally quite often, he has a superb slice backhand and he uses drop shots a lot. He often uses shots that no one else on the tour would hit!
Tomic Hitting A Very Unusual Forehand Drop Shot
Technical
Overall Bernard has a solid technical game with everything necessary to become one of the world’s best tennis players!
Forehand
Tomic has a good forehand. This is the shot that he most often pressures his opponents with. He tends to hit his forehand quite flat which is sometimes an advantage but oftentimes also a disadvantage for him.
The ability to flatten out his forehand is definitely a good thing and he can often dominate points with those flat shots. Nevertheless, he also needs to develop a better heavy topspin forehand because it is a safer shot and can be used in more difficult situations!
Instead of hitting heavy topspin Tomic will often hit some really slow flat forehands in situations that don’t allow him to hit the ball hard and flat. These shots can be attacked easily and the top players will punish him for it!
Have A Look At His Forehand
He Does Not Get The Tip Of The Racket Very Low On Average!
Overall his forehand is a good shot with a lot of potential but he often lacks topspin and is also not aggressive enough with it!
Want To Improve Your Own Game ?
Sign Up And Get Free Video Tips!
Backhand
Tomic hits a good two-handed backhand. His mechanics are solid with good grips, a nice inside-out swing pattern and a textbook like high finish position!
His down-the-line backhand can be quite dangerous but he does not hit it as often as he probably could or should!
Have A Look At The Tomic Backhand In Slow Motion!
Can You See The High Finish Position With The Elbows ?
Slice
Bernard has a superb slice backhand and uses it quite often. He is one of the few players on tour that can really make that slice skid through the court and stay low!
He also has a lot of variety with that slice. He can hit it deep or short, depending on what he wants to do at the time!
Check Out This Incredible Slice Backhand Winner From Tomic!
Volleys
Bernard is a solid net player and can finish off points extremely well at the net. This is definitely an advantage he has over many other professional players today!
Serve
Tomic has a good serve with a nice fluid motion. He can definitely do some damage with the first serve but it is probably not as big as it could be and needs to be yet. Shoulder strength could definitely be a factor here.
Tactical
On the tactical side Tomic has certain strengths that not many other professional players have, but he also has some weaknesses that at this point still hold him back from reaching the highest level of the game!
A lot of players are a bit surprised with the variety and changes of pace that Tomic incorporates into his game. He is still fairly new on tour and the players are not used to his game style yet.
Nevertheless, players will get used to his style and sooner or later he will have to start playing more aggressive if he wants to prevail against the Top20 and Top10 kind of players!
Quite often Tomic plays too far behind the baseline. In his match against Roger Federer at the 2012 Australian Open this was very obvious and Federer punished him with drop shots quite a bit!
Have A Look At The Federer Tomic Highlights
As you can see in the video, Tomic does not have a very aggressive mindset on the court yet. Oftentimes he will just hit seemingly easy balls back instead of putting pressure on opponents whenever he gets a chance!
This will only work up to a certain level and the guys in the Top10 will punish him relentlessly whenever he doesn’t use his chances to be aggressive!
Another great thing in his game is his phenomenal touch though. He can hit drop shots and lobs with extreme precision and has great hands around the net!
Physical
Bernard Tomic is a very good athlete. He seems to move around the court in a pretty effortless manner and he can definitely cover the court quite well already!
Nevertheless, at currently 19 years of age he still has some maturing to do as an athlete. His shoulders need to get stronger for bigger serves and he will probably gain more strength in his legs to move around the court even better.
Mental
It is somewhat difficult to judge Bernard Tomic’s mental strength this early in his career. It does appear to me though that he is a good competitor and I don’t think mental strength is going to be much of a problem for him in his career!
Ranking
Again it is somewhat difficult to judge him since it is so early in his career still. Nevertheless, I believe that he has all the technical capabilities necessary and I think the tactical area is where he has the most room for improvement!
1. Technical
2. Physical
3. Mental
4. Tactical
Conclusion
Tomic is certainly a player with a lot of potential. Nevertheless, I see some problems with his game that he needs to overcome if he ever wants to be a Top5 kind of player.
In order to compete with the world’s best Bernard Tomic will need to learn to play a lot more aggressive! He needs to stand in closer to the baseline and get used to going for his shots more!
His backhand down the line is dangerous and he should use it a bit more often. On the forehand side he needs to develop a more consistent heavy topspin kind of shot in addition to the hard flat shots that he already uses. Finally his first serve needs to get a bit more pop on it!
He of course still has room for improvement in the physical area at the age of 19. Getting stronger will probably help him a bit with the first serve speed and effectiveness as well!
