Tennis: Tomic moves into 2nd round

BARCELONA:

Bernard Tomic dominated Latvian Ernests Gulbis 6-3, 6-4 to reach the second round of the Barcelona Open, with the Australian 15th seed making a winning debut at the event. Tomic, at 19 the youngest man in the field in the Catalan capital, spent 67 minutes in handing one-time prodigy Gulbis another ATP disappointment.

The two-time quarter-finalist Latvian went down on two breaks of serve. Tomic, who won a round in Monte Carlo last week but lost his next match to Alexandr Dolgopolov, was pleased with a winning start in the hotbed of Spanish tennis. “I played well from the first game,” said Tomic. “I served well and got more comfortable on the clay.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 25^th, 2012.