Teenage qualifier Tomic living Wimbledon dream

LONDON (AFP): Australian qualifier Bernard Tomic admits he has exceeded his wildest expectations after becoming the youngest man to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals for 25 years.

Tomic, 18, crushed Belgium’s Xavier Malisse 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 in the fourth round on Monday and is the first teenager since Boris Becker in 1986 to get to this stage at the All England Club.

Only Becker, John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg have made the last eight at a younger age and Tomic is also the first qualifier to reach the last eight at Wimbledon since Vladimir Voltchkov in 2000.

The teenager, who will play second seeded Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic or France’s Michael Llodra for a place in the semi-finals, had already become the youngest man since Michael Chang in 1990 to reach the Wimbledon fourth round by defeating world number five Robin Soderling on Saturday.

Tomic, ranked 158th in the world, demolished world number 42 Malisse in one hour and 21 minutes to reach his first Grand Slam quarter-final and said: “It’s an unbelievable achievement. I feel great. It’s a great honour to do it here in Wimbledon.

“I never thought I’d be here the second week, especially in the quarter-finals. What a feeling and what a tournament it’s been for me.

“Tennis is a sport where anything can happen if you compete well and try. That’s what I think I’ve done well in this tournament, especially in the second round when I was down two sets to love and 2-0 against Igor Andreev.

“Things weren’t looking good for me. I pretty much thought the match was over within 15 minutes. The guy was all on top of me. It shows when you compete and fight in a match, things change for you.”

Tomic’s fairytale run has already catapulted the teenager onto the global stage and he believes he has every chance of improving his growing reputation in the next round.

“I’m not going to stop now. I’m going to try my best to play on Wednesday in the quarters. I’ve got nothing to lose,” he said.

“Can I win it? That’s a big question. It’s three matches away. Anything is possible.

“I could be talking to you here in four days or this could be my last time. We’ll see.”

Tomic has long been earmarked as one of the sport’s rising stars after winning the Australian and US Open junior titles.

But he nearly didn’t make it to Wimbledon after coming within five points of losing his first match in the qualifying event.

This was a far more emphatic victory. Malisse, 30, reached the semi-finals in 2002, but it was Tomic made a red-hot start on the sun-baked Court 18.

Malisse finally got on the scoreboard in the sixth game, but Tomic responded by finishing off the first set after just 21 minutes.

Tomic found it harder to dominate the second set as Malisse finally found some rhythm. But the Australian kept the pressure on, landed the decisive break at 5-5 and held serve to open up a two-set advantage.

Tomic produced a sublime forehand winner on the run to break for a 5-4 lead in the third set before serving out the match and celebrated by exchanging high-fives with Australian fans.