NEW YORK—American tennis fans hoping to catch a glimpse of long-hyped Aussie prospect Bernard Tomic, who made it to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon this year and taking a set from Novak Djokovic when he got there, were sorely disappointed on Court 17 this afternoon, where the 18-year-old went down meekly to the tournament’s 27th seed, Marin Cilic, 6-1, 6-0, 6-2.
The two players met once before, in a bruising five-setter won by Cilic at the 2010 Australian Open. Today was a different, painfully more straightforward story: Cilic came out firing, cracking winners off both wings and venturing successfully to the net, while Tomic seemed physically diminished from the get-go. What was to have been a battle of the tall and lanky (Tomic stands 6’4”, Tomic 6’6”) quickly turned into a one-sided affair.
It took a short while to grasp what was transpiring because Tomic’s game is more nuanced than most of his contemporaries, often drawing on finesse, touch, and off-pace deliveries. But none of it worked today as rally balls coasted out of bounds, slice backhands died in the net, and the youngster became so discouraged that, when he threw up a short lob in the fourth game of the match, he walked to the back of the court to fetch his towel before Cilic hit the ensuing smash winner. The nadir came when, serving 1-5 down, Tomic handed over the set behind two unforced errors and two double faults, one on break (and set) point after just 21 minutes.
Murmurs of speculation about Tomic’s health began to circulate when the teen excused himself to the bathroom between sets. After going down 0-3 in the second set, he summoned the trainer, who gave him some tablets to help with what Tomic described as a lack of energy. He doesn’t know what the tablets were, but they didn’t save him from getting blanked in the second set, part of a run of 11 straight games for his 22-year-old opponent.
The new court was packed to capacity before this match began—no doubt due to the early completion of a trio of one-sided contests on Arthur Ashe Stadium—but the stunned and silent New York fans, who could hear cheers from Louis Armstrong from their seats, began to dissipate after the first set. During the second, the crowd tried in vain to spark a rally Tomic rally—some fans yelling distinctly New York encouragement (“C’mon, Bernie!”), others disapproval. One particularly opinionated spectator barked: “Don’t shrug your shoulders; hit with some authority!”
In the third set, there were signs of life for Tomic, who earned two break points in the first game, but Cilic held on his way to an eventual eight-game final-set win, punctuated by a scant few scintillating cat-and-mouse, drop shot-lob points that hinted at what most knowledgeable fans thought would define this contest.
After the match, Tomic followed a great Aussie tradition, refusing to acknowledge illness after the fact, insisting that he was physically fine. He blamed his lethargy on being overwhelmed by Cilic and how quickly “he got on top of me… he deserved the win the way he played.” Tomic has a reputation for prickliness, but it was a quality performance in the press room, if not on the court.
When Ryan Harrison lost to Cilic in round one, he too said that he was physically fine, but that when he came out, he simply wasn’t able to play his best tennis on the day. Cilic might be hoping this trend continues in his opponents—in the next round, he faces Roger Federer.
—Andrew Friedman