Tomic falls in Vienna opener
Bernard Tomic went down in the first round of the ATP Erste Bank Open 500 in Vienna to Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
Vienna, Austria, 24 October 2017 | AAP
Bernard Tomic’s disappointing 2017 has continued with a first-round loss to French qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert at the ATP tournament in Vienna.
The French world No.83 and Tomic played a match that never really hit any great heights before Herbert eventually prevailed 7-6(4) 7-5.
Indicative of the 25-year-old Australian’s performances throughout the season – in which his ranking has dropped over 100 places since the start of the year – he was occasionally brilliant but more often than not erratic, serving up six double faults.
Tomic dropped his opening service game of the match before playing some huge forehands and drop shots full of guile to break back to 5-5 when Herbert was serving for the opening set.
Tomic took an early minibreak in the tiebreak before Herbert hit back to prevail.
Tomic took an early lead in the second set when he broke for a 2-1 lead and appeared in control until he served for the set at 5-4 and Herbert broke back before reeling off the next two games to close out the win.
Top-seeded German Alexander Zverev was made to fight in his opening match but eventually overcame Serbia’s Viktor Troicki 6-3 4-6 6-4, joining fellow German Phillipp Kohlschreiber in the second round after he upset American fifth seed John Isner 7-6(6) 6-4.
In earlier action French veteran Gilles Simon beat Ernests Gulbis 6-3 6-3 and Richard Gasquet defeated Felicano Lopez 6-3 6-2.