adminone will be aiming for his third straight Australian Open title in Melbourne later this month, and the Hopman setback was his first defeat on Australian soil since 2010.
Djokovic, looking a little rusty at the start of a new year, was broken in the ninth game of each set in losing 6-4, 6-4 to the gifted 20-year-old.
It was the first time the Serbian had been beaten by the enigmatic Tomic, ranked 52nd in the world, in four official meetings.
Tomic, who reached a career-high ranking of 27 last June but also endured a late-season form slump along with several on and off-court dramas in 2012, did beat Djokovic in a light-hearted exhibition match at Kooyong in 2010.
Djokovic (25) said he wasn’t overly concerned by the loss, having arrived in Perth only a few days ago after winning in Abu Dhabi.
“He played really well and deserved to win,” he said.
“I knew I was coming here to Australia very late and it takes me time to get used to it. I know I am not close to my maximum, but I expected that.
“I was always on the back foot and he was the better player.”
Djokovic said he was fully aware of Tomic’s talent, after the Australian reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 2011 and the fourth round at last year’s Australian Open.
“He is right up there with the up-and-coming players, he is very talented,” he said of Tomic.
“He knows the game well and tactically plays very well for someone his age. He definitely has the game.”
Tomic called it the best win of his career.
“I would say so, I played a very, very good match,” he said.
“The training is paying off, it is a huge feeling. I am still improving and I have got a lot more to improve.
“This is a good sign and I have to continue to play like this.”
Meanwhile, former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone showed her fighting qualities as Italy beat Germany 2-1 at the Hopman Cup yesterday.
Needing to win her singles match to keep Italy alive in the tie and the mixed-teams tournament, the world number 35 was a set and a break down while battling stomach pain against little-known German Tatjana Malek.
But she rallied determinedly to win in three sets.
Malek arrived from Miami to replace the injured Andrea Petkovic in the tournament less than 12 hours before her match. But the German recovered from a shaky start to stun her more fancied opponent in the first set.
Things were going to script when Schiavone won the first three games of the match, but the 112th-ranked Malek won the next eight games in succession as the veteran made a string of uncharacteristic, and often inexplicable, errors.
Schiavone’s woes were summed up by the simple forehand error that handed the German the first set.
Just when an upset loomed, the 32-year-old Schiavone was able to claw her way back into the match as fatigue appeared to start affecting Malek.
Although she was well down on her best form, Schiavone was able to prevail 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. “It was not easy today,” she acknowledged afterwards.
Schiavone and team-mate Andreas Seppi then clinched the tie with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Tommy Haas and Malek in the mixed doubles.
Haas had given the Germans the lead in the tie with a hard-fought straight-sets win over Seppi, 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (9/7).
Seppi served for the first set and had three set points in the second, but it was the German who won the crucial points to take the match.
Haas’s determined hustle paid off on match point, when his dogged defensive work opened up the opportunity for the forehand winner that sealed the win.
The 34-year-old admitted the result could have gone either way. “It was a really tight match,” he said.
“I think we can both be happy, it was a very high-quality match. I was pleased with how I played the big points today.”
In Brisbane, France’s Gilles Simon began his fine-tuning for the Australian Open tennis tournament with a hard-fought win over Colombia’s Alejandro Falla in the second round of the Brisbane International yesterday.
In temperatures as high as 35 degrees Celsius on one of the Queensland Tennis Centre’s outside courts, Simon edged out Falla in two tiebreak sets 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/5).
The third-seeded Simon, a semi-finalist in Brisbane last year, was unconcerned about being relegated to one of the minor showcourts, albeit one with a roof.
“It was very hot, even with the roof, and it was very difficult playing today,” Simon said. “But that’s good, that’s why I came here. It’s such good preparation for Melbourne.”
Simon had a disappointing Australian Open campaign in 2012, suffering from an injury in the lead-up then falling in the second round to countryman Julien Benneteau.
“I couldn’t play for five days beforehand, then in the first round I went to five sets (against Thailand’s Danai Udomchoke), it just took too much out of me,” he said. — AFP.
Online Reporter