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U.S. OPENAugust 29, 2013Bernard TomicNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK D. EVANS/B. Tomic THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Such a good start. Bit of a concentration lapse at the start of the second, couldn't quite get it back? BERNARD TOMIC: Yeah, played okay in the first. I think he couldn't find his rhythm in the first. Was up also 2‑1 in the second with a break. I don't know, from then he started playing better. I couldn't really hit the ball. I was afraid, just ‑‑ I don't know. It was pretty bad after that, second and third set. Q. You said 'afraid.' Did you feel you can hit it in? BERNARD TOMIC: Yeah, just wasn't going after my shots. Just felt afraid to go after the ball. Wasn't playing in the court like the first set. Just shows, you know, you could be up 6‑1, 3‑Love. If you lose that break, a guy comes back in the match, it can change. Sort of that's what happened today. Unfortunately, I couldn't find my tennis at all. Third, fourth set he was really confident and he was playing really well after when he got his confidence back, yeah. Q. Were you surprised by his confidence? He seemed very pumped out there. BERNARD TOMIC: Yeah, I mean, like I said, the first set I didn't give him a rhythm. I went after my shots, played aggressive, didn't give him time. After, when I slowed down the pace, which I sometimes don't know why, he started playing better. Gave him the opportunity to come into the match. Then after I couldn't do anything. Q. Where do you feel he hurt you the most? BERNARD TOMIC: I was actually a little bit tired, to be honest. My feet weren't moving. I wasn't really getting a lot of power and legs into my shots. So the power wasn't there. I was just getting the ball back. He was going for his shots. From then, I couldn't really find any rhythm after losing that second set. Q. Does it surprise you that he's 179 in the world? BERNARD TOMIC: Yeah, I mean, it shows you anybody can play in the top 250. A lot of guys can play. It's just a matter of consistency. The guys in the top 100 and top 50 are more consistent. He's playing well for the first time. This is his best result. He played very well against Kei. I knew if he beat Kei it was going to be difficult. I think I started well today but just lost the concentration, lost my energy level. It sort of dropped. I couldn't execute my shots, go after my shots, and from then he took over. Q. Your hitting partner is a Brit? BERNARD TOMIC: Yeah. Q. He knew him pretty well, didn't he? BERNARD TOMIC: Not really. Well, sort of. I don't know. He knew of him. We didn't speak a lot before the match about him. I really got my info from other people. I watched a few tapes on the Kei match. He played really well. Nothing I could have done. I didn't play well. Q. What is your Brit partner's name? BERNARD TOMIC: David. I don't know his surname. Q. There's more tennis to play this year. It's obviously the end of the Grand Slam run. Could you assess your season. BERNARD TOMIC: Probably similar to last. Just up and down. I don't know, I play very good, I lose for a few months, then I play good again, then it falls down. Yeah, we'll see. I have Asia coming up. Next six, seven weeks, I have nothing to defend. Have Davis Cup coming up. See how the next tournaments go. Would like to get back in the top 30 before the end of the year. Q. Any sense why so many ups and downs? BERNARD TOMIC: Still young. Still learning (smiling). You know, it's tough. A lot of guys out there are experienced. My tennis is good, but I lack experience. Each sort of year is a good experience for me. I learnt a lot last year; I learnt a lot this year. Still two months to go for this year. Six, seven tournaments for me. I'm going to try to do as well as I can and then we'll see. Q. You mentioned Davis Cup just now. You and Janowicz are the young group of guys people have been talking about. Have you been following his year since the breakout in Paris? I can't remember whether you played before. What do you think of his game? Talk a little bit about the Polish team. BERNARD TOMIC: It's a very good team. Very difficult. Four, five years ago they didn't have a good team. Now they have a very good team. I think Jerzy is a bit injured now. So this is interesting. I think his back's sore. I spoke to him in the locker yesterday. He said he's going to try to play doubles. It's interesting. His back is very sore. He couldn't compete at his level in his first‑round match. We've got to prepare well the next week. I know the boys will. I know the whole team will. I'll work hard because it's Davis Cup. The tie is very important to us. We had a chance last year and missed it. And the year before, very close. We'll be ready for this one. Hopefully we can win this time. Q. Last year you said you played too much. That was part of your issue. What do you blame this year? BERNARD TOMIC: I don't blame anything. I think it was a solid year. You know, there's a lot I could have done better, I think, but I wouldn't change anything. It's been an okay year. I'm still very young. This is where I can take that to my advantage. I've learnt a lot this year. It's my second probably big year on the tour. I can only get better, I think. I've got, like I said, six, seven, eight tournaments left. I can perform, try to do as best as I can, go for it. I'd really like to get back in the top 30 before the end of the year. Q. The issue with your dad has dragged on for a lot of months now. Are you looking forward to that being resolved to get it done? BERNARD TOMIC: Yeah, I'm not thinking about that too much anymore. That was before. I mean, what can I do? I don't think about that. Before I did, the month after, but now not really. Q. You spoke before about slowing the pace of the ball down a little bit, you're not sure why you do that sometimes. Is that something you're working on removing from your game or will you continue to change the pace of the ball? BERNARD TOMIC: I don't know. I mean, I think one thing to do is, I think I get lazy on the court, my tennis sort of comes a bit slow. I don't really know how to put guys away. I think that's my problem. I get off to a good start, I'm comfortable, I'm winning. I can't really find that edge to close out the match. Being comfortable, I always tend to slow down, stop using my feet. That's where in tennis it's not a very good thing. You need to be always on your feet, always be ready. I need to work on that. Q. Are you going to be able to watch Rusty tomorrow? BERNARD TOMIC: Yeah, I've got to play doubles with Gooch. I'll go see Rusty play if I have time. I've got to try to win another match in doubles. Q. Will you get a chance to play doubles in the Davis Cup? BERNARD TOMIC: If we win the US Open, then probably yeah (laughter). FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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