Tomic’s drought-breaking year continues as 374-week wait ends
Bernard Tomic has ended a seven-year drought, qualifying for his first Masters 1000 main draw since August 2019.
Tomic was up against Kazakhstan’s Timofey Skatov in the second round of qualifying at the Shanghai Masters and finished a 7-5, 6-4 winner.
The polarising Australian is currently ranked world No.184 and came into the second round after a walkover 6-3, 4-6, 5-3 win over France’s Terence Atmane.
Against Skatov, Tomic was far superior at the net with 10 points won out of 10, compared to the Kazakh’s three from four.
He also hit 29 winners to 21 and had 13 unforced errors compared to Skatov’s 22.
Tomic now moves on into the main draw with the full list of matches set to be finalised once other qualifiers end.
His last time in a Masters main draw was at Montreal when he beat Ernests Gulbis and Australian Marc Polmans in qualifying. Tomic went on to lose in the first round at that event against Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut 6-3, 6-2.
Earlier this year, Tomic won the Lincoln Challenger event in the US. He also claimed his first hard court victory in five years at the ATP 250 event in Mexico.
The first match at Shanghai will be in the round of 128 with numerous big names already through to the round of 64 after a bye.
The round of 64 will include the likes of Alexander Zverev, Alex de Minaur, Ben Shelton, Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev.
De Minaur and Djokovic are set to battle before that in Beijing’s China Open final.
The top-ranked Aussie will seek his first Beijing trophy and second title of the season while Djokovic has previously won six Beijing tournaments.
