AO Qualifying - Tomic v Paul

[bjk]

In what will surely be a battle for the ages, Australian party boy Bernard Tomic goes up against American Tommy Paul. It's a battle of finesse and guile vs, well, a basic baseline grinder. Tomic blitzed French lefty Millot in the first round and Paul outlasted Blaz Rola in three tiebreakers. Tomic looks to show the Australian authorities that he deserved a wild card and Paul is trying to earn his first GS main draw without a wildcard. Who you got?

 

[Red Rick]

All aboard the hype train

 

[SinjinCooper]

Tomic's strangely compact FH vs Paul's strangely compact BH.

I think experience, FH, and home field advantage carry the day.

 

[3fees]

64 qualifying matches were completed at Melbourne Park on Wednesday.
The draw ceremony for the Australian Open will be held on Margaret Court Arena at 8am GMT on 11 January.

Cheers
3Fees

 

[jaggy]

This is the big one we have all been waiting for

 

[Nostradamus]

64 qualifying matches were completed at Melbourne Park on Wednesday.
The draw ceremony for the Australian Open will be held on Margaret Court Arena at 8am GMT on 11 January.

Cheers
3Fees

I think Tomic has lots of motivation to pull this one out.... He wants to get more sponsors and continue his money in the bank. He should win this one. Paul is next gen player that really hasn't made that breakthrough just yet.....

 

[bjk]

Paul's a better player, he really is. He's fitter, he's faster, and he's taller than the listed 6'1 and he's got a pretty good serve, plus he doesn't have any holes in his game, and his mental game is very strong. He beat Pouille, Young, Chung, Muller, and Fritz during the summer. I think he was injured after USO and that hurt his results late last year. I saw parts of his loss to Jasika in Playford, it was a weird match, he was taking exactly zero time between serves, as if he was tanking. I don't know what to think about that. He then won the meaningless doubles title with McDonald so . . . ? But he won a 39-game match yesterday so he is clearly fit and ready to fight.