Bernard Tomic succeeds against Andreas Haider-Maurer in the opener – French Open 2012
Ranked 29th in the world, Bernard Tomic of Australia faced limited resistance in ousting Austria’s Andreas Haider-Maurer in straight sets 7-6(5), 6-3, 6-3 in the first round at the French Open in Paris on Monday.
Haider-Maurer drew the first blood, breaking Tomic in the opening game of the first set and holding his next serve to build a 2-0 lead. Serving for the set at 5-4, the Austrian could not win even a single point and dropped it,
evening out the score at 5-5. The next two games went with the serve to level it at 6-6 and force a tie-breaker. Tomic played outstanding in the crunch situation, claiming four of the last five points to triumph 7-6(5).
The Australian, who is considered his country’s only hop in near future, did not impress by his performance in the opener. He hit just 67 percent of the first serves and converted merely 21 of the 32 of them into points. The right-hander
lost seven of the 16 points on the second deliveries and made 22 horrible unforced errors. The only positive aspect of his game was that he banged in 10 winners compared to eight by Haider-Maurer.
Tomic captured breakthrough in the very first game of the second set and consolidated on it to go up 2-0 but lost the following two, levelling the score at 2-2. However, the Australian played impressively after that moment, securing
four of the next five games to win 6-3.
The 19-year-old played even better in the third set, snatching opening five games to race to a 5-0 lead. Haider-Maurer almost made a stunning comeback, as he won subsequent three and reduced the trail to 3-5. However, Tomic did
not allow him to level the score, sealing it 6-3.
Giving an interview afterwards, Tomic said, “It feels great. Having played a few times and lost first round, it was a bit difficult — and especially at a young age. It went better than I hoped. I struggled in matches last year
and, the year before, I couldn't win a match on clay.”
He added, "Now to have played six, seven weeks and I've gone into some tournaments in the quarters and basically every tournament I played, I won a round — except Madrid. So it's good. I'm moving good. My body is feeling much stronger
and I think this is going to help me a lot for the grass court season."
The Australian will meet Santiago Giraldo of Colombia in the round of 64.
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