28 June 2013 | Tennis Queensland
Bernard Tomic reached the third round at Wimbledon with a classy, straight-sets win over American veteran James Blake on Thursday.
Tomic found the second round more comfortable than his previous match against Sam Querry [21], although he still had to fight hard to bring home the 6-3 6-4 7-5 win.
Tomic, at 20 the youngest man left in the men’s draw, will now face ninth seed Richard Gasquet on Saturday, when Sam Stosur will also play for her first ever third round win at Wimbledon.
There was no sign of the troublesome hamstring injury which caused Tomic to retire from doubles on Wednesday, or of the upset caused by his father and coach John still absent from his side.
Instead, Tomic left his worries behing him and made a bright start against 87th-ranked Blake, breaking serve in the fourth game of the opening set.
He converted his third set point with an ace and carried the momentum into the second set, breaking to love in the opening game.
Blake pulled back level but a fired-up Tomic seized the advantage again to go 5-4 up and he took the second set with another strong service game.
Tomic served for the match in the third set but Blake broke back to square the match at 5-5.
However, he hit straight back, setting up another break of serve with a superb diving volley and sealing the win in the next game before celebrating with a small but vocal contingent of Australian supporters.
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