Carsten Ball

[Liub]

Was pretty impressed with this kid.

Played a good match in the doubles and against Capdeville. Very good serve, good forehand, okay backhand, good volleys. Tall, mobile, Chris Guccione with less aces and unforced errors. His groundstroke still lacks consistency.

He doesn't seem to have the talent to be a top 20 player but probably Australia's best single prospect at the moment. I mean who else do we have besides Hewitt?....Gooch, Luczak, Klein, Jones? Tomic will take a couple of years.

 

[red+black]

Tomic always said his goal was to be Australia's youngest ever Davis Cup player. If he is to achieve that, at the latest he needs to play the first round in 2010. He would miss out by a few days if he played the 2nd round in 2010.

John Alexander was 17 years and 177 days when he played in 1968. Tomic was born October 10, 1992.

 

[Power King]

Tomic is a good australian hope for the future.

Unfortunately, a lot of comparisons are being drawn between him and hewitt for some not so nice reasons. Haven't heard many nice things about the way the kid acts...

 

[crowsarethebest]

The quicker Tomic gets away from his dad the better IMO. I've heard some nasty things about his dad.... Tomic is basically playing like a counter puncher at the moment but hopefully when he physically matures he can get more power in his game. He's get solid ground strokes, a pretty solid serve. However his movement isn't the best. He's a big lad for a 16 year old. However his footwork and anticipation is first class. He just knows where the ball is going to go- he's like Federer. He's got great feel around the court and seems effortless in the way he plays. I wouldn't say his strokes look graceful- his forehand technique is a bit weird (It's some kind of European technique), but he is just a natural tennis player. You can tell he's get an awesome tennis brain.


He can seem as if he doesn't try at times though. Whether thats his style or immaturity I don't know. It's probably a bit of both. He got fined last year for not trying hard enough at the French Open and consequently Tennis Australia pulled him out of Winbledon and US Open. His body still hasn't filled out yet but when it does I'm pretty certain he'll be a top 10 player on tour. For a 15/16 year old he is doing brilliantly. He's already a top junior player, he'll probably go pro after another season in juniors. At this stage his strokes are nothing special- he just has better placement, temperment and control than all the other juniors. Yeah, he's very similar to Hewitt, gets every ball back at this stage. However, as I said before, once his body develops he should be one heck of a player.

 

[matt_897]

The way he played on the weekend confuses the hell out of me how he lost 6-0, 6-1 in the final twos ets against trocki in the us open. I was impressed witht he doubles display, hoping for some solid end of season challenegrs results.