Tomic faces Nadal live in Australian Open Saturday
Will Tomic be the second Australian teenage player to challenge and beat No. 1 player in Aussie Open?
Can Australian 199th-seed Bernard Tomic live up to his word following his declaration that he has enough court tricks that can challenge both history and the No. 1 player in 2011 Australian Open currently held by Rafael Nadal of Spain.
The 199th- seed Queenslander is facing first seed Spaniard at the match set on Saturday and the much-awaited battle is expected to test what is considered to be the teenage player's biggest game of his career.
All eyes is set on Tomic, for if David beats Goliath, Tomic can be the second Australian teenage tennis player to ever challenge and beat the No.1 player at the Aussie open. Fifteen years ago, according to Fox Sports, Mark Philippoussis became the first Australian teenager to have successfully wounded then No. 1 Pete Sampras on Roda Laver Arena.
And this year, Tomic has challenged not just the No. 1 player but also tennis history. Often described with much bravado and exuberance, Tomic fired the warning at Nadal after winning straight sets against 31st seed Feliciano Lopez Friday leading a victory 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-3) 6-3.
Tomic claimed after his fresh straight wins against Lopez that Nadal would be 'uncomfortable confronting his variety and change of pace'.
"There's not much weakness (but) I don't think he'll like my game. I think he'll like the players that give him a lot of time, a lot of rally shots. I think the way I mix it up, he's not going to like. But who knows?", Tomic said, according to The Australian.
Meanwhile, Nadal has expressed excitement on the upcoming match, sharing everyone's observation that Saturday's game will be a 'nice' one.
Quoted by The Heraldsun, Nadal said, "I think it's nice to have young Australian coming well and having very good talent and very good future". Nadal has earlier disregarded any suggestion that the 'parochial crowd' could throw him out of his game.