Bernard Tomic, who just reached the quarterfinals in Shanghai, says he has become more consistent and wiser. Last year, the Australian struggled for much of the season, having surgery on both hips.
The 22-year-old has beaten two Top 10 players this year (David Ferrer and Marin Cilic). In Shanghai, he defeated world No. 11 Richard Gasquet, 6-3 6-7 (1), 6-4 in the third round and faces Novak Djokovic next.
“I feel very confident. This year I started I think at No. 78 or No. 80 in the world, defending a final as well in Sydney,” the world No. 20 said. “I got into the Top 20 the past few weeks. Now is a big chance to finish the year very close to the Top 15. I have to work hard. This match next is an opportunity. But this is my best year. I'm working much harder. I'm a bit smarter and wiser...”
Tomic turned pro back in 2008 and reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in 2011, as well as the fourth round at the 2012 Australian Open. But he admits that when he was younger, he wasn’t ready to perform consistently.
Off the court, Tomic has been involved in a dispute with Tennis Australia and was arrested for playing loud music at his hotel room in Miami, though the charges were dropped.
“It's not easy, for sure,” Tomic said. “People think it's easy. Absolutely, it's very tough. The age of 18, 19, obviously I didn't quite handle it well. I'm sure a lot of players at the age of 18, 19, they were adapting, getting there, getting the feel for the tour, the surroundings. It's not easy. It's a crazy road on tour. You have to be mentally very strong.”
Tomic is 36-23 on his season coming into Shanghai, and he said that he has played too many events. Over the summer, he played four straight grass-court tournaments. On hard, he defended his Bogota title and then played Washington, Montreal, Cincinnati and the U.S. Open (where he lost to Gasquet).
“I think you want to always play limited tournaments. I did well in a lot of them, so it kept me going, kept me pushing to play more, which was in one way good from a results point of view, but for my body it was probably bad playing this many tournaments,” he said. “I can look at next year and obviously cut down a lot more tournaments. The tour is very tough. It's only meant for the really strong in the head.”