Kokkinakis takes out Tomic. No surprise there really. What amazes, is how Tomic is wasting such obvious talent of his. He has all the ability you'd want in a tennis player: great serve; early ball strike; power and deftness; good variety; very skillful all round but - and a big but - unless the ball is almost presented to him, he can't be ars.d. His game presently is half trying, sort of, and half almost tanking. Extraordinary.

Tomic appears to be a classic example of talent being ruined by the self serving interests of an overbearing parent. I don't have any first hand knowledge but from everything I have heard his father created such a toxic atmosphere around his early career that any love or even genuine interest Tomic had in the game was extinguished. I know he acts like a bozo a lot of the time but I can't help sympathizing with him as I don't think his lifestyle brings him any happiness and I am not sure he is equipped to deal with his obvious problems.

Kermode should jump on him (kermit?) and put an arm around him. Someone should help him. He has such unique talent which ought to be showcased.

I just do not get Liam at all.

Does he have a problem, mental or physical that just turns up for long periods He goes through such bad runs where he would struggle on the futures circuit in terms of form and then we be a top challenger player 6 months later, and so on.

I see yet another false dawn.

indiana wrote:

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People speculated that the decision to play a series of clay tournaments in the run up to the French Open was in some ways good ambition / preparation by Liam but had effected his him quite negatively re his results both on clay and returning to hard.

And Liam more or less confirmed that in discussion with Mike Cation recently ( I think after his previous win vs Jay ). While I didn't get the impression thst he thought his choice to focus on these clay tournaments was wrong he said he tried to change his game too much to be more of a 'clay courter' and in retrospect that was a poor choice which he would not repeat but more just play his game. And it had taken him a while to get 'back' which he now felt he was.

Yes, he has certainly had big ups and downs but one can see some cause and effect this year.

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Yes although I think you can definitely justify him playing on the clay as being better for him long-term, I wonder if maybe in future he would be better off following Evo's template - concentrating on getting his ranking up by playing his best surfaces, then once a fixture inside the top 100 and full of confidence to try and play more of a proper clay court season then.

First set Liam, 6-4. Well done!

Break down in the 2nd though. 2-3*