Bengaluru Open Tennis: Holt bolts out temperamental Tomic

Bengaluru: Bernard Tomic has been a professional for close to 17 years now. The Australian’s game, akin to his life, is no secret. Once a feared opponent to face, most players on the Tour now have found a way to tackle the 32-year-old on court. For, his play relies heavily on the state of his mind more than his obvious skillset. 

Dare we say the result of a match depends on Tomic’s decision to win or lose. At least in encounters such as the one witnessed at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA) on Wednesday. 

In a round-of-16 clash at the Bengaluru Open, Tomic raised and lost hope in the blink of an eye against third-seeded Brandon Holt who built on the mistakes made by the Aussie to score a 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 win.

Staying true to his character of flirting with the lines and net from the word go, Tomic was rewarded more initially before being punished for the same towards the later stages of the contest. All the while, USA’s Holt kept his feet moving to stay alert and make returns irrespective of where the ball landed on his side of the court. 

Despite losing the first set, the 26-year-old American was well-aware of the need to stay put without doing anything extraordinary. Doing enough to keep the ball in play and being disciplined with his first serves, Holt’s patient wait for Tomic to waver mentally arrived in the 10th game of the second set when the latter served trailing 30-40 and 4-5 down. 

Tossing the ball from the ad side of the court, Tomic darted a serve which he thought kissed the line even as the line umpire signalled it out. A casual walk towards the net to give the landing spot a good look, a shake of the head, wiping of the sweat and a sigh were mild indicators of a storm that began to brew in the 6-feet 5-inch Aussie's mind. 

What followed was Tomic's slump that resulted in him losing the point and set on second serve before getting broken in the first game of the third which set the stage for Holt to eventually capture the match in a little over two hours.

“He is a great player with an all-round game. The feel he has is amazing which makes him very tricky to play,” said Holt, son of former women’s World No. 1 and Grand Slam Champion Tracy Austin. 

"But I’m happy that I stuck to my plan, managed the heat and situations in the match well to get through.”

Myneni-Ram in semis

Defending champions Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan put up a solid display of tennis to advance to the semifinal of the doubles event. 

The Indian pair scored a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Hynek Barton of Czech Republic and Eric Vanshelboim of Ukraine.  

Myneni and Ramanathan broke their opponents thrice in the entire match while barely getting challenged on their serves to run away to a routine win. 

Results: Singles: Round-of-16 (prefix denotes seeding): Hynek Barton (Cze) bt August Holmgren (Den) 7-6 (5), 6-3; 3-Brandon Holt (USA) bt Bernard Tomic (Aus) 5-7, 6-4, 6-4; 7-Shintaro Mochizuki (Jpn) bt Jay Clarke (GBR) 5-7, 6-1, 6-2.

Doubles: Quarterfinal: 2-Blake Bayldon/ Matthew Christopher Romios (Aus) bt Adil Kalyanpur/ Karan Singh (Ind) 6-2, 6-4; Saketh Myneni/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (Ind) bt Hynek Barton (Cze)/ Eric Vanshelboim (Ukr) 6-3, 6-3; Siddhant Banthia/ Parikshit Somani (Ind) bt Nicolas Mejia (Col)/ Bernard Tomic (Aus) 7-5, 6-0.