TENNIS in DEPTH.

Australia gave themselves a fighting chance of returning to the Davis Cup World Group after splitting their singles matches with Switzerland on Friday but will wonder what could have been after Lleyton Hewitt eyed off an improbable victory over Roger Federer. Rising star Bernard Tomic started the tie in style with a four-set win over Stanislas Wawrinka before the unlikely started to look possible with Hewitt a set and a break up over the 16-time Grand Slam champion. But class prevailed in the second singles match as Federer fought his way back from 3-1 down to claim a 5-7 7-6(5) 6-2 6-3 victory. Hewitt has little to be unhappy about though, his spirited play rendering his world ranking of No.199 meaningless and the former world No.1 will fancy his chances against the disappointing Wawrinka on Sunday.

The Swiss No.2 had started brightly against Tomic, mixing up his play and even managing a number of successful forays to the net. But the lanky Tomic loosened up after the first set, playing the kind of grasscourt tennis that took him to the Wimbledon quarter-finals this year. His mix of touch, flat shots and moments of pure power nullified anything the world No.19 could come up with and the 18-year-old registered a 4-6 6-4 6-3 6-3 win.

Much will now hinge on Saturday’s doubles match with Hewitt and Chris Guccione slated to to play Federer and Wawrinka.

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Nadal’s match against Fish is the second match on Court One, with Bernard Tomic and Novak Djokovic getting the action underway. That match will see the master take on his apprentice, with Djokovic having taken the 18-year-old Australian under his wing and used him as a regular practice partner. ”Novak is a champion,” Tomic said. ”He’s obviously won grand slams before. My relationship is really good with him. I’ve hit with him a lot of times. He’s a cool guy – one of the nicest guys on the tour.”

Rafael Nadal will not suffer a repeat of the foot injury that hampered him during his fourth-round victory over Juan Martin Del Potro. World No.1 Nadal suffered the problem to his left foot at the start of clash, leaving the Spaniard fearing his tournament was over. A scan, though, revealed only minor swelling of a tendon in the foot, rather than the broken bone that Nadal had feared, and Dr Ignacio Munoz of the Spanish Tennis Federation believes the problem will not resurface in the quarter-final meeting with Mardy Fish. ”There is no risk in him playing,” Munoz said. ”You can see that he is training quite normally. I don’t think he will have any problems.”

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Australian teenage sensation Bernard Tomic sprinted through to the quarter-finals of Wimbledon with a crushing win over Xavier Malisse on Court 18. The 18-year-old qualifier from the Gold Coast, who knocked out fifth seed Robin Soderling in straight sets on Saturday, added another chapter to his fairytale story as he dispatched his more fancied opponent 6-1 7-5 6-4 in just an hour and 21 minutes. The win extends his best run at a grand slam event to give him a last-eight berth, although his quarter-final opponent, one of Michael Llodra or Novak Djokovic, is sure to test him more than out-of-sorts Belgian Malisse, who paid the price for an ill-disciplined start. Malisse was broken in just the second game of the opening set, Tomic hitting a forehand winner, and, when he lost his serve again in the fourth, he set about exchanging words with the umpire.

He was unhappy with the stringing on his rackets, even going as far as suggesting they had been strung by an Australian, while he also took issue with a number of line calls made on both his and Tomic’s serve.

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The 18-year-old won 6-1 6-4 7-5 in one hour and 52 minutes on court one in a massive upset against the ailing Scandinavian. The victory, which carries Tomic into the round of 16 for the first time in his career, is also likely to result in the current world No.158 cracking into the top 100 rankings.

The Queenslander said he couldn’t believe that he had reached the second week at the All England Club. “I’d love to believe it, but, you know, it’s a new feeling for me,” he said. “It’s the first time I’ve experienced playing the second week. “It’s a whole new feeling for me … I’m sure I’ll get used to it.” Tomic will play Xavier Malisse in the round of 16 on Monday. “I’ll always remember this is the first time I’ve really done well at a grand slam,” he said. “I think the way I’ve been playing is really good. “If I can keep it up like this, who knows.”

Soderling met an Australian for the second straight match at Wimbledon following his five-set second round win over Lleyton Hewitt. Hewitt’s coach Tony Roche started providing the Tomic camp with tips on Soderling’s game only minutes after the youngster booked the third round match on Friday.

Tomic stunned Soderling and the court 1 crowd by claiming the first set in just 17 minutes. The big Swede screamed in frustration after slipping to 4-0 down with less than 10 minutes on the board and his mood didn’t improve when Tomic produced a brilliant a lob volley serving for the set. Tomic mixed up his pace and used his slice to keep the ball low and out of the powerful Scandinavian’s hitting zone. He made Soderling look like a park player in the opening set and enjoyed a two-set lead not that long after the hour mark. Soderling improved as the match wore on but Tomic kept on frustrating him and broke the Swede’s serve again for a 6-5 lead in the final set. Serving for the match, he started to get a little tense but pulled himself over the line and celebrated the victory by raising both fists in the air and enjoying a standing ovation.

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The Swede, a quarter-finalist in 2010, appeared to be suffering from dizziness as he lost the opener in 17 minutes. Tomic, 18, kept firing groundstrokes as he secured the solitary break in the fifth game of the second set. The upset was complete when the qualifier broke late on in the third before holding his nerve to serve out.

“I had to play very well to win,” said Tomic in the wake of his victory. ”It is probably the greatest achievement of my career so far, I’m really happy. ”I looked very calm but inside I was bursting. I could see he was getting frustrated and I knew I just had to stay calm.” Tomic, whose best previous run in a Grand Slam ended in a third-round defeat to world number one Rafael Nadal at the 2011 Australian Open, will play either Jurgen Melzer or Xavier Malisse in the last 16.

Tomic began the tournament 153 ranking places adrift of Soderling, but the gap is certain to close after a crowd-pleasing win on Court One.

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Lleyton Hewitt and great hope Bernard Tomic advanced to the second round at Wimbledon on Tuesday as Samantha Stosur continued her poor run at the grasscourt grand slam. A week after retiring mid-match because of a stabbing pain in his left foot, Hewitt defeated Kei Nishikori 6-1 7-6(4) 6-7(7) 6-3 late on day two to join Tomic in the second round. The youngest player in the men’s draw comfortably accounted for former world No.3 Nikolay Davydenko 7-5 6-3 7-5, while Stosur’s Wimbledon woes continued in a 6-3 6-4 loss to world No.262 Melinda Czink. There had been major questions about whether Hewitt would be able to last an entire match against the fleet-flooted Japanese youngster with his injured foot. The 2002 champion regarded his preparation as the toughest of his career leading into a grand slam before defeating Nishikori in three hours and seven minutes. He sunk to his knees to celebrate the win in front of his supporters with shadows falling across court 12.

Hungarian Czink earlier made a mockery of her lowly ranking with an impressive performance and claimed victory in an hour and seven minutes against Stosur. The former world No.37 made a bright start and despite tenth seed Stosur rallying from 4-0 down in the second set, the outsider was too good. The result added to Stosur’s ordinary record at Wimbledon as she exited the tournament at the first stage for the second straight year. In her nine trips to SW19, she has only made the third round on one occasion. There had been hopes that Stosur was ready to make inroads at SW19 following last week’s win over 2010 Wimbledon finalist Vera Zvonareva at the lead-up event in Eastbourne. But it was not to be.

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Bernard Tomic has been granted a wildcard into the main draw of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, one of the world’s biggest tournaments outside the four majors.

And, in what may be considered a surprise move, 1999 Indian Wells champ Mark Philippoussis, who is currently attempting a comeback, received a wildcard into the qualifying event. The 34-year-old Melburnian won his first ATP Champions Tour title with a 6-3 6-2 win over 46-year-old American Aaron Krickstein.

Tomic, the current world No.185, is one of the youngest players in the top 200 and will be joined by fellow rising stars Milos Raonic, Kei Nishikori, Ryan Harrison, Coco Vandeweghe, and Christina McHale in the main draw, which will be played from March 7 to 20.

Veterans James Blake, Vania King, Jill Craybas and Sania Mirza were also given wildcards into the main draws.

Since reaching the third round at Australian Open 2011 as a wildcard, Tomic has made it to the semifinals and the final at Challenger events in Burnie and Caloundra respectively. He lost his most recent outing against Lukas Lacko in the first round of qualifying for the Delray Beach ATP event.

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Bernard Tomic has continued his dream Australian Open to book a third-round blockbuster with world No.1 Rafael Nadal. Australia’s world No.199 stunned Spanish 31st seed Feliciano Lopez 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 on Thursday to reach the last 32 of a grand slam event for the first time. The biggest win of Tomic’s career came two days after the 18-year-old two-time junior grand slam champion dumped world No.44 Jeremy Chardy from the tournament. Playing Nadal – almost certainly in the prime-time Saturday night slot – will be a whole new ball game for Tomic.

But the top seed is nonetheless already on guard. “He’s very young, he’s playing well I think, he has a very very good future … hopefully not for the next round,” Nadal said after trouncing American qualifier Ryan Sweeting 6-2 6-1 6-1 earlier on Thursday. Nadal said a match against the young Australian on Rod Laver Arena would be a nice occasion and recalled his days as a teenager taking on dual grand slam winner Lleyton Hewitt in Melbourne. “I remember when I was here when I was 16, 17, I played against Lleyton (twice and lost both times). If you win, it’s unbelievable. If not, it’s OK,” the history-chasing Spaniard said.

Tomic’s clash with Lopez pitted the youngest player – and last remaining Australian – in the men’s draw against a two-time quarter-finalist playing his 36th consecutive grand slam event. Anything but overawed, though, Tomic came out firing, opening with an ace, holding his first two service games to love and breaking Lopez for a 3-0 advantage with a booming backhand pass down the line. Showing guile, deft touch, agility and power, Tomic raced to 5-2 only to drop serve to love trying to close out the first set. But the teenager retained his nerve to recover from 2-0 down in the tiebreaker to pocket the first when Lopez dumped a forehand into the net. Tomic suffered a letdown early in the second set, dropping serve to fall behind 3-0 but gallantly broke the Spaniard to love in the seventh game. The Australian again prevailed in the second-set tiebreaker as Lopez, feeling the heat, began to unravel.

The two-time Wimbledon quarter-finalist had two break point opportunities in the seventh game of third set, but Tomic held strong and broke Lopez for a 5-3 lead the very next game. He calmly served out the match after two hours, nine minutes. Tomic said he was having the time of his life at Melbourne Park, where three years ago, at 15, he became the youngest-ever junior Open champion. “What an experience it’s been,” he said.

“I can’t ask for anything more. To get the opportunity to play Rafa is a dream come true.

“I’m lucky I had the chance to play Feliciano, another left-hander, because I’m going to need everything out there.”

Lopez was the only player to inflict a grasscourt defeat on Nadal last year, upsetting his countryman in the Queen’s Club quarter-finals, before the world No.1 added the Wimbledon and US Open titles to his French Open crown.

The 24-year-old Spaniard arrived in Melbourne bidding to become the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold all four grand slam titles simultaneously.

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