{"id":815631,"date":"2026-07-21T04:38:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T04:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/815631\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T04:38:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T04:38:15","slug":"tennis-news-2026-bernard-tomic-wins-lincoln-challenger-john-millman-interview-nick-kyrgios-comparisons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/815631\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis news 2026: Bernard Tomic wins Lincoln Challenger; John Millman interview; Nick Kyrgios comparisons"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Millman<\/a> has applauded Bernard Tomic\u2019s<\/a> passion and perseverance after the Australian veteran snapped an eight-year title drought on the ATP tour on Monday (AEST).<\/p>\n

Eighth seed Tomic won the Lincoln Challenger event in the United States with a 4-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(3) victory over fifth seed Mark Lajal of Estonia.<\/p>\n

\"Bernard<\/p>\n

Bernard Tomic returns a shot during his third-round match at Wimbledon in 2011.\u00a0nna\\emily.patterson<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old appeared to have the tennis<\/a> world at his feet when he reached the Wimbledon<\/a> quarter-finals as an 18-year-old in 2011.<\/p>\n

But that remains Tomic\u2019s best grand slam result as a rollercoaster ride – both on and off the court – ensued.<\/p>\n

After lifting the trophy in Nebraska, Tomic said his success may extend his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to be as honest as possible,\u201d he said after the final.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout 10 days ago, or even two weeks ago, I had a moment of doubt. I had said this year would be my last, so I guess I\u2019ll have to rethink my plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe start of the season wasn\u2019t easy. I was away from the courts for a few months, I was lucky enough to welcome a beautiful daughter, and I was between 160 and 170 in the world rankings. So I needed these last few months to gain points.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust two weeks ago, I was thinking: \u2018Damn, I think this will be my last year.\u2019 And then everything started again, so it\u2019s time to begin a new cycle. So yes\u2026 I\u2019ll probably play another 20 years!\u201d<\/p>\n

The retired Millman is four years older than Tomic but mixed it with the teenaged prodigy growing up in Queensland and knows him well.<\/p>\n

Nine analyst Millman admits Tomic hasn\u2019t always got it right.<\/p>\n

But he believes he is generally misunderstood by the Australian public and the tennis brat stereotype is wide of the mark.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone knew that he was extremely talented,\u201d Millman told nine.com.au.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bernard Tomic of Australia.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you could also see that it wasn\u2019t easy for him growing up. He had his own challenges and from maybe a challenging upbringing, I actually think he\u2019s turned out a pretty good kid. He welcomed his first child into the world, and I think that that changes your perspective, but I\u2019ve only found him really pleasant to deal with.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Australian public probably don\u2019t understand the pressure that he felt from a very young age. He was under a big spotlight because Australia was craving the next Lleyton Hewitt<\/a>, so everyone was picking at every single thing that he did.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd yes, at times he didn\u2019t necessarily represent himself in the best positive light, but everyone makes mistakes, and it\u2019s very easy to make mistakes when you\u2019re a young kid. The whole nation is watching your every move, and he\u2019s had to make his mistakes in front of the public\u2019s eye.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s a good person. I\u2019ve seen him be very nice to tournament staff, tournament volunteers, and away from the spotlight is where you really get to understand the person, and you get to see those little things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tomic\u2019s drought-breaking triumph came in front of a sparse crowd at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.<\/p>\n

He earned $24,000 in prizemoney and a rankings jump to 170 in the world.<\/p>\n

Millman says there is no reason why he couldn\u2019t continue winning tournaments and crack the top-100 again.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bernard Tomic wins the Lincoln Challenger.\u00a0YouTube<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce upon a time, he was probably forced into playing tennis because he was very good and John Tomic, his old man, was probably a bit of a tough taskmaster,\u201d Millman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut deep down, Bernie did love the game. He\u2019s got a great feel for the game. He\u2019s always been one of the best at reading the play, his anticipation levels are off the charts. He\u2019s never necessarily been a great mover, but he was a great anticipator, so he could track down balls.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re winning these challenger events, that\u2019s really the precursor to setting you up for a top 100 run. And when you get inside that top 100, he\u2019s back playing on the courts of Wimbledon or Australian Open.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see why he can\u2019t because he definitely has belief, and that\u2019s one of the toughest things in tennis, is actually having the belief that you do belong…<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge ego check to play in some of these lesser tournaments and I don\u2019t think anyone really expected him to do it for so long. I have a lot of respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Millman saw some similarities with Tomic and Nick Kyrgios<\/a> in how their careers had played out.<\/p>\n

Kyrgios, 31, played doubles at Wimbledon earlier this month but he and Alexander Bublik were knocked out by the sixth seeds in the first round.<\/p>\n

\"Bernard<\/p>\n

Bernard Tomic and Nick Kyrgios\u00a0nna\\bglover<\/p>\n

Last week Kyrgios beat Brazilian star Joao Fonseca 3-0 (16-11, 17-10, 19-11) at the Ultimate Tennis Showdown exhibition event in Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know Nick very well and Nick might not admit it, but Nick\u2019s a bit like Bernie,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeep down he really does love tennis. That\u2019s the first step into trying to get back to playing some really good tennis. I think both those boys do love their tennis still, and Nick\u2019s got to try to embrace that, but also get his body right.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of question marks over that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Millman has applauded Bernard Tomic\u2019s passion and perseverance after the Australian veteran snapped an eight-year title drought…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-815631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}