8th May, 2012
Young gun Australian Bernard Tomic has earned a Grand Slam seeding for the first time in his career.
The 19-year-old’s three-set defeat of Potito Starace at the BMW Open in Munich last week boosted him to 30 in the rankings and earned him protected status afforded to seeds at grand slam level ahead of this month’s French Open.
He is likely to retain the ranking for Wimbledon, where he lost in four sets in a quarter-final last year to Novak Djokovic.
Lleyton Hewitt (2010) was the last Australian Grand Slam seed.
Tomic conceded he had struggled on clay even in his junior years but will enter the French Open with confidence.
“My clay-court game has struggled in the past few years,” Tomic said.
“Now, to win back-to-back matches at the same tournament is huge for me, so I’m going to keep going and hopefully next round I can win, too.”