Bernard Tomic squeezed through tight first and third sets to emerge victorious 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) against France’s Pierre-Hugues Herbert on Wimbledon’s court 18. Victory for the Australian sets up a meeting with the world No1 Novak Djokovic in the third round.
Tomic, the No27 seed, was beaten by Djokovic at the quarter-final stage four years ago but will take immense heart from a battling display that saw him concede 50 winners to the Frenchman.
The key to his victory was a solid first-serve percentage of 72%, well up on his opponent’s more erratic delivery which saw Herbert make 21 aces but only get 54% of first serves in.
Victory in straight sets came despite Herbert going 4-1 up in the third-set tie-break. Tomic recovered with two forehand winners, and unleashed a winner on his backhand side to take a narrow lead – only to double fault.
However he regained his composure to complete a less-than-routine win in exactly two hours.
