Bernard Tomic said in a recent interview that there will be no more dominant veterans like Roger Federer on the ATP World Tour. Instead, according to Tomic, a handful of up-and-comers will share the spoils.
“Generations will move on, for sure in two or three years there will be no Federers,” the 20-year-old Australian explained. “They will slowly start moving and four, five years from now it will be a totally different group of players in the Top 10; that’s for sure.
“It gives a chance for players like Milos Raonic and Grigor Dimitrov and myself to get into that spot, and take over and dominate. I’ve got to stay positive, keep working, and my time will come to get to that stage.”
Tomic peaked at No. 27 in the world rankings last June, but he has been no better than 39th since last October. Tomic’s highest ranking in 2013 was 40th and he currently registers at 51st. He did most of his damage en route to a 25-22 record during the Australian summer, with his first and only ATP title coming in Sydney prior to a third-round performance at the Australian Open.
In other news, Tomic has confirmed his participation in January’s Sydney International. He will be attempting to defend a title for the first time in his career.
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What can I say? He’s decided that he is going to be one of the Big Players in 5 years time when he is 26. A lot of water would have gone under the bridge by then. New players may have come on the scene that aren’t apparent yet.
So Bernie’s saying they (the young guns) are waiting for the Federer’s to sail away into the sunset before they mount their challenge. He is not ashamed to say that?
I suppose he’s got to remain up beat. However, seems a bit of a strange attitude, didn’t see Andy/Nole/Rafa/JMDP going “blimey, we’ll have to wait 5 years for Fed’s game to go off a bit, before we have a chance……”
#;)
@deucy, SNAP!
deucy, you mean Rafa, Nole, Andy, JMDP in that order.
Nope.
Maybe, Bernie should get himself a hit man and asign him to the Big/gish 4. He can share the expenses with the other up and so far non comers, lol!
“Generations will move on, for sure in two or three years there will be no Federers,” the 20-year-old Australian explained. “They will slowly start moving and four, five years from now it will be a totally different group of players in the Top 10; that’s for sure.”
A monumental statement of the screamingly obvious. Well done Mr. Tomic. Thank you for your insightful analysis 🙂
Fortunately there are some promising players gradually climbing the rankings who may well outshine the current batch of hopefuls. Also there is already a solid tier of slightly older players (aged 24ish plus) who will have plenty to say about Messrs Tomic, Raonic and Dimitrov dominating the circuit.
He would do well not to count his chickens before they are hatched.
Some young players might take offence to Mr Tomic’s musings, such as Janowicz who has actually made a slam SF.
I’m not sure there will ever be a champion as classy and elegant as Federer, but there will be great champions who can win 6-12 slams in a career. I doubt it will be possible for any one man to win more than 12 after this Fed/Joker/Rafa era.
scootd@November 20, 2013 at 5:38 pm
–I’m not sure there will ever be a champion as classy and elegant as Federer—
There is a champion more elegant than Federer – it’s Rafa. You can compare yourself:
http://tinyurl.com/owaq7xy
Classy on court, in regular life, or in interviews? Sorry, but to me that is the question that begs to be asked.
he means in everything
That is a matter of opinion, no? In my very humble opinion, Fed is not classy. He is a sore loser, horribly lacking in self-confidence.
Some people mistake an expensive, designer haircut for class, I don’t…………………..
how is he a sore loser?
because his name isn’t Rafa Nadal?
If “classy and elegant” is the criteria, and those are pretty subjective terms, my vote is for Stefan Edberg.
Examples of Fed as sore loser:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WpnIMxnQRQ
2. http://sports.yahoo.com/tennis/blog/busted_racquet/post/Federer-takes-a-jab-at-Djokovic-8217-s-desperat?urn=ten-wp3237
And no, his name will never be Rafa Nadal, thank goodness………………….
RITB: I’d forgotten about Roger’s comment about Novak’s match point shot. I don’t care if Novak stood on his head, switched racquet hands and crossed his eyes while he made the shot. A winning shot is a winning shot, for heaven’s sake.
When it comes to Roger’s view of himself, he is the difficult to avoid end-result of over-adulation starting in his early 20s and exasperated beyond measure by the power of the internet and global access to TV channels. Few could come out of that trajectory not changed. Comparatively speaking Roger comes out of that process not too badly: while on the one hand some of his barely veiled arrogance, put-downs and exagerations can be grating (on me, for one), he behaves over all far better than my oh-so-young compatriot Justin Bieber.
RITB, before I read your two examples, those are the first two I thought of so you saved me the time.
He’s only classy and elegant on a consistent basis when he wins. When he loses, it’s a complete crap shoot.
There are many others but those two are the best.
Muzza crying at Wimby was completely different. Here was the best player (probably ever) to have never won a major after his 5th try at his home tournament. He was as (if not more) disappointed for his country, team and family as he was for himself.
In 2008 AO, Fed was trying to tie Sampras’ slam record and solidify his GOAThood. All about him. Remember “God, it’s killing me!!!”
#Selfish
When you think how downbeat Andy’s celebrations were when he actually WON a slam, you realise how much losing that match cost him.
#Hero
^^^^ Ricky, you know full well Federer is more often than not less than gracious when he loses.
In Paris, after losing to Novak, he literally stalked off the court and straight past a line of kids waiting for his autograph without a glance in their direction. This was in stark contrast to Rafa who spent several minutes signing autographs before leaving the Bercy arena after losing to Ferrer,
Admittedly after the loss at Basel, which would have come as a huge disappointment for him, he was remarkably good humoured and generous in his praise of Delpo. You don’t have to look too far to know why this was so.
Ricky is a federazzi wannabe in his spare time.
Fed can’t be classy and elegant all of the time (in other words, when he’s not winning)…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-pjB2i9azg&noredirect=1
I think one of my favorites is when Roger and Stan both lost their Davis cup singles ties. Roger was beaten by Isner. In a post-match interview, Roger stated that although he lost, he still played a good match yet, in the same breath, had no trouble at all declaring that Stan had played a bad match.
Here’s the Davis Cup interview: The quotes start at 00:48. Roger, after minimizing his own loss says about Stan..”He didn’t have a good match. I’ll agree with that.” http://youtu.be/hzbbcLz-XDo
Hahahaha, interviewer says that Roger and Stan both played relatively poor.
Roger “half” agreed.
#StanfordYoureFired
Who will ever forget the tearful breakdown at the ’09 AO but IMO this is not a good example of Federer being a bad loser. On that occasion it was more about his lack of emotional maturity to cope with the bitter disappointment of that particular loss. For me that is easier to understand than the steady stream of snide digs and calculated put downs that he comes out with after the event.
Occasionally he pays lip service by saying the other guy was better on the day but
always qualified by why he didn’t win and often accompanied by a critique of his opponent’s game. Even when complimenting the guy who has beaten him, it invariably comes with the proverbial sting in the tail.
Six years after the bout of mono (which disrupted his form but was not severe enough for him to miss any tournaments) he still refers to it as the reason, together with his back problems, for why his period of total domination stuttered. I have never known him admit to having met his match in Rafa, Andy, and Djokovic.
^Ed: You took the words right out of my mouth.
The incident which made my jaw drop was when he insinuated he won the Gold medal in Beijing in spite of Stan and said something along the lines of having to ‘help’ Stan get through the matches. As for that ridiculous cringe-making celebration on court, whatever did he think he was doing. Do you recall when Stan beat him at Monte Carlo he said he’d always known Stan was ‘a work in progress’. Duh.
It makes me smile when the commentators always refer to them as being good friends. I get the impression Stan would like to have his guts for garters.
Right said ed!
Was never a big Chris Chase fan but he pretty much nailed it in this older article…
http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/tennis-busted-racquet/roger-evaluating-federer-cocky-comments-154457703.html
^^^I’d forgotten that priceless piece by Chase.
Most tennis fans other than Fedaddicts see through Fedspeak. You have to marvel at his consistency in attempting to maintain the facade of invincibility in the face of all the evidence to the contrary. I would give a lot to be a fly on the wall at the meetings with his advisers to plan public relations objectives and strategy for promoting the concept of goatdom.
#DamageLimitation
Reading through the comments under the Busted Racquet blog highlights how devoid of humour your average Fedaddict is. Only one Fedfan saw the funny side and made a perceptive assessment.
“though I’m a huge Federer fan this did give me a chuckle – very astute article. I think there is some embarrassment there though – it’s as if he is aware of his greatness and pleased by it but somehow detached from it. Yet at the same time he is very proud and it’s hard for him to admit when he’s not played so well. The press do ask him some stupid questions though – they ask for it sometimes”
http://federerfan07.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/federer_2k10_iw_14.jpg
#Humb1e
^^Fedtards will say, “Oh, that is Fed just being honest, acknowledging a FACT, his genius”! Rafans and the rest of humanity, otoh, see a jerk…..
And when Rafa says he does not see himself as a favourite in any match i.e. he treats every opponent as a worthy competitor they say, “Bah humbug, false modesty”! Rafans and the rest of humanity, otoh, see an honest, respectful, humble person……
Can’t wait for 2014. Will the “Genius at Work” slogan fly when Fed continues his slide down the rankings?
Do you think he ever cringes when he sees the overkill in print? Or does he simply accept it is his due?
Rafa may display OCD symptoms but Roger ticks all the boxes for NPD.