Aussies around the Globe – Tomic in Basel, Aussies suffer end of season blues

Written by: Global Chick on 7th November 2011

Aussies around the Globe – Tomic in Basel, Aussies suffer end of season blues

Australia's Bernard Tomic in action during his match against Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka during the first rubber of the Davis Cup world group play-off in Sydney, Australia, on 16 September 2011. EPA/DEAN LEWINS AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT |

Queenslander Bernard Tomic was not given his usual wildcard entry on the grounds of being young and upcoming this week at the Swiss Indoors in Basel. Australia’s number one player ended up having to play in the Basel qualifying event. Tomic lost in a tough first qualifying round to Swiss wildcard Michael Lammer 6-7 (3) 6-4 7-5. Lammer went on to qualify for the main draw where he took out former world number eight Mikhail Youzhny in the first round. The Swiss player also had a close match with former Top 10 player Marcos Baghdatis but lost in the second round.

Greg Jones from New South Wales played in the Virginia National Men’s Pro Championships in Charlottesville, VA in USA this week. The event was a $75 000 Challenger on hard court. The Australian number four ranked player lost in the first round to the number one seed Somdev Devvarman of India.

Big Chris Guccione suffered the same fate as Jones and lost in the first round. The Gooch was downed by the number seven seed American Michael Yani 6-3 6-3.

Gooch’s doubles partner Carsten Ball qualified for the Charlottesville main draw but he also lost in the first round. Big serving Ball lost to American Jesse Levine in three tough sets.

The doubles event was pretty much a disaster for the Australians. Nima Roshan and partner Roman Borvanov got in to the main draw doubles as lucky losers and were also losers in the first round. Greg Jones played with Pierre-Ludovic Duclos and suffered a first round loss. Guccione and Amer Dclic were first round casualties as well. The only man from down under winning a match over there on the other side of the pond was doubles veteran Jordan Kerr. The South Australian partner David Martin of the United States. The two were second seeds and got to the semi-final before losing to wildcards Treat Conrad Huey and Dominci Inglot.

Samuel Groth the former husband of Jarmila Gajdosova was spotted at the Glen Iris Valley Recreation Club in Victoria in Melbourne playing for local club Liston in the “pennant” (Australian team tennis) finals this weekend. Groth made a short comeback to the sport he used to play. These days he is playing AFL football. His serve was looking really sharp in his singles match on Sunday. Sam Groth’s highest carrer ranking was No. 220.

Seen at this very same event in Melbourne was former tennis professional Richard Fromberg from Tasmania. Back in 1990 the tall Tasmanian was ranked world No. 24.

That same year Richard won the Bologna and Bastad tournaments and he defeated Andre Agassi in Indian Wells. Frommie plays pennant for Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club during the winter.

The World Tennis Challenge in Adelaide have finally announced their field for 2012. The format is great with each team consisting of one current pro and a former pro. The first singles match is played between the current pros and they will play a two sets singles with a superset in the third if needed. This match will be followed by the former pros they will play fist to eight games with a tiebreak at 7-7 should this scenario arise. The third match is the team doubles. It’s a one set doubles shoot out with a super tiebreak if required.

The interesting part of this tournament is the two matches will be played on court next to each other. The crowd will be able to watch both matches at the same time. Another advantage for the crowd is that each player will be on court every night so whatever night you attend you will see your favourite player regardless.

The World Tennis Challenge teams for 2012 are:

Australasia: Pat Rafter and Alexandr Dolgopolov

America: John McEnroe and James Blake

Europe: Henri Leconte and Michael Llodra

International: Brad Gilbert and Stanislas Wawrinka

Wildcard: Ball magician Mansour Bahrami

People involved in this event are former players, Jim Courier, Darren Cahill, Mark Woodforde and Roger Rasheed. This fabulous event is played 10 January – 12 January 2012 at the Memorial Drive in Adelaide.

Our lovely neighbouring country New Zealand holds a men’s tournament the week before the Australian Open. The Heineken Open is played in Auckland and is the biggest men’s professional sporting event in New Zealand. The tournament has secured last year’s winner David Ferrer and fellow Spaniard handsome left hander Fernando Verdasco.

Topics: Bernard Tomic