Tomic v. Djokovic, the teacher v. the puil, great article from the Daily Mail

The influence of Djokovic, who gave a reminder of his younger, fiery but seemingly forgotten self when he threw his racket while playing Marcos Baghdatis on Saturday, seems to have been good for Tomic, though.

And the teenager from the Gold Coast admits he holds the Serbian in great esteem.

'Novak is a champion,' Tomic said. 'He's obviously won grand slams before. My relationship's really good with him. I've hit with him a lot of times. He's a cool guy. One of the nicest guys on the tour.

'I think he has respect for me. I've got a much bigger respect for him, obviously, being in the top three for so long and now being close to becoming No 1.

'To play against a guy like him that's No 2 in the world, it doesn't really get better than that.'
Tomic plays as an Australian but was born in Germany to Croatian and Bosnian parents.



'Ever since that day he's always said good things about me,' Tomic added. 'I've hit with him at least a dozen times now. I think he likes having me around.

'When you're hitting with him, you learn a lot of things from a player like that. We played a set before the tournament. He destroyed me.
'So things are not looking good for me, but hopefully he destroyed me then and not on Wednesday.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/tennis/article-2009123/Wimbledon-2011-Bernard-Tomic-gunning-mentor-Novak-Djokovic.html#ixzz1QawvWqs9


Interesting that Novak and Tomic have hit about 12 times this year. I don't see this matchup going well for Bernard personally. Good young player but I think he is still a couple years away from being able to win a match like this. I got Novak winning this one in straight sets. Will Tomic having played Novak this many times help him or hinder him. In my opinion, I think it helps the more experienced player Djokovic since he knows exactly what expects to get from Tomic. There will be no element of surprise it may be hard for tomic to get Novak out of his comfort zone.

Tomic looked good against an under par Soderling and then Malisse who again didn't play that well, but was that down to him or Tomic not allowing him to?

Either way Djokovic is a different proposition and I can't see this going past three sets, providing the Novak that we have seen over last few months turns up.

Yep, Tomic is in awe of Nole and is a beaten man before he steps on court. Sometimes this is where training with the top guys is a plus and a minus.

Still the experience will be great for Tomic and he'll learn where he needs to improve. I can see Nole winning it with the loss of around 6 games.

Lydian and Sportslover, I agree, sometimes the element of surprise helps a younger player against a more established foe. But you have to feel that if Novak has gotten a number of looks at Tomic that this helps the cagier more experienced pro. Being the older pro I am sure that he doesn't show the kid everything in their practice sessions. Plus he probably makes it a point to keep beating him and if he though he couldn't take the kid he wouldn't play with him at all. This is very smart for the older guys in my mind catch one of these bright stars early and put it in his mind that you can't beat me.

I like Tomic's game A LOT, definitely my favourite "young" player: gentle to the ball, great feel and ball striking, , brilliant, chessy game, a bit like young Murray but nicer ball-striking. I dread to think what he could to with it if he really got hold of it.
One thing he could work on is his movement, that's where Nole "destroys" him.

Nitb, I like Tomic's game alot. Do you think it helps Tomic having hit with Novak so often or maybe the other way around? I personally think it will help Novak more.

lol...that's where Nole destroys most people!

I like Tomic's game a lot too, he was one of those along with Dimitrov that was a future star...both have played well so far so its good to see progress. I think Tomic will need to strengthen up though.

Yep socal...Nole's not stupid, he knows its good to keep the young lion down for future meetings! Still its good of Nole to practice with him.

socal1976 wrote:Nitb, I like Tomic's game alot. Do you think it helps Tomic having hit with Novak so often or maybe the other way around? I personally think it will help Novak more.

They are obviously good hitting partners for each other, non threatening (up until tomorrow) Tomic can learn a lot from Nole about the tour etc, Nole gets a great ball-hitter to practise with, everyone's a winner

Well it ended up being a tougher match than I would have predicted. Credit to Tomic he has had a great tournament and year so far this season. His style is really off putting when he is playing well.

Tomic is destined for the top of Tennis in a couple of years time. This guy is only 18 years old and reached the quarter finals of Wimbledon.

Mark, I think he definetly has the ability and the sky's the limit. But at the same time I guess I fall into the category of fan that wants to see some stronger evidence of him being the real deal. I think he is, but is he a grandslam winner in the future, maybe, but only time can tell. AT this point I think we can assume that he will develop into a top 10 or 15 kind of player.

Tomic is a great talent, but there's more to a top, top player than talent: there's fitness, stamina, dedication, desire...I'm not sure Tomic has all of those, he's more likely to be a new Tsonga.