35 events, 6 continents, $358k: Tomic\u2019s globetrotting quest<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cIt was a little bit swirly, I was a little bit nervous as well at the start. I haven\u2019t played many big matches over the last year,\u201d Tomic said after the match.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe atmosphere was incredible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a pretty good last four or five months of the year \u2026 I\u2019d like to have finished a bit higher, but I didn\u2019t. All is well, so let\u2019s see. These are the moments you\u2019re grateful for.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 33-year-old has left the game for periods and always found headlines, with a Miami arrest amid a lengthy list of behavioural incidents and controversial moments.<\/p>\n
He said on Monday that he had \u201csort of left the sport a bit mentally\u201d at times, but affirmed he is back for business.<\/p>\n
\u201cI needed to (leave it),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sport was really tough for me, and I was not the best person to cope with it mentally. So I figured out a way to just like, you know what \u2026 I wanted to see if I can challenge myself and get back to the top 100 from 900 (ranking) at that stage. It\u2019s still going to be tough. Let\u2019s see if I can do it, huh? That\u2019s my goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tomic was ranked as high as 17 in the world in 2016 and now sits at 184.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something that has been my sort of goal, to qualify at a slam again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201c(And) to have a bit of a run at a grand slam now. Maybe at Wimby (Wimbledon) or here. I know I\u2019m still good enough to compete with these top guys. But it\u2019s just a matter of surface conditions. Everything has to lay out for me at this time, at this age \u2026 I\u2019m having fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo let\u2019s see if I can win a couple more matches here, huh?.\u201d<\/p>\n
In scenes that could have been mistaken for the tournament\u2019s first round as Opening Week kicked into gear, Tomic played in front of a near full-house at 1573 Arena with fans chanting his name. Dellien was clearly affected at moments throughout the match, smashing a racquet while Tomic asked for bananas and regularly removed his shirt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Aussie fans have always been there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always been great. I can\u2019t wait (to play again) \u2026 it\u2019s truly an amazing feeling. I\u2019m so happy I\u2019m back winning. It\u2019s my first match I\u2019ve won in a while here. So for me, it\u2019s really good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tomic, 33, took his first step towards qualifying for the year\u2019s first grand slam on Monday, winning his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,41699,115367,217006,12180,217008,217003,15631,217007,217004,85,166810,747,217005],"class_list":["post-410086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bernard-tomic","tag-codepass","tag-controlling-straight-sets","tag-dominant-display","tag-globetrotting-quest","tag-highest-ranking","tag-lauren-wood","tag-opening-qualifying-clash","tag-qualifying-bid","tag-sports","tag-straight-sets-win","tag-tennis","tag-young-fans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}