Bernard Tomic’s tennis ability against world No. 1 Rafael Nadal

Tonight Australia will get the measure of Bernard Tomic’s tennis ability against world No. 1 Rafael Nadal, writes Linda Pearce

Ask Pat Rafter about it. Rafter, remember, was the charismatic emerging star whose round-of-16 contest against the great Andre Agassi in 1995 prime-time was promoted like few Australian Open matches before it. Rafter was belted in three sets, the last 6-0. The damage was extensive, the recovery slow. Six months later, having dipped 40 places in the world rankings, Rafter finally won consecutive tour matches again.

Two majors and a stint at No.1 later, Rafter is Australia’s Davis Cup captain, pressed into the job by his old mentor John Newcombe and welcomed by a desperate Tennis Australia as still the best-loved face in Australian tennis, a decade in retirement notwithstanding. The underwear and deodorant salesman will soon have a more demanding job: dealing with the prodigious talent that will tonight feature on Rod Laver Arena against world No.1 Rafael Nadal.

Rafter was involved in the decision to award Bernard Tomic an Open wildcard for the third consecutive year, but also party to the minor wrist-slap that required the occasionally wayward 18-year-old to qualify in Sydney earlier that week. Through the first top-50 wins of Tomic’s career, the second over a discombobulated 31st seed Feliciano Lopez, the result is this: Tomic’s name and face everywhere. Saturday night live. So will the world No.199 handle the hype?
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‘‘He’s a pretty relaxed character in a lot of ways; he’s a very different temperament to what I was, so I think he’ll deal with it pretty well,’’ Rafter said. ‘‘Time will tell. But I don’t think it will affect him. It’s just the way he plays, his attitude, and he’s very relaxed. He looks disinterested, but he’s not. I expect him to deal with it pretty well.’’

Handling the ruthless Nadal will be a different matter, but Tomic watchers know that these are the occasions he likes best. Satellite tournaments, despite the fact he already owns one Challenger title, are not really his thing. As a 16-year-old he was the youngest man ever to win a round at the Australian Open, and last year he pushed eventual semi-finalist Marin Cilic to five late sets in round two. Of his seven career wins at tour level, four have come in his home grand slam, including Thursday’s patient dismemberment of a tortured Lopez.

‘‘Well, Rafa is a different story,’’ the beaten Spaniard said later. ‘‘He’s the No.1 player in the world, and Rafa has so many options when he plays now. It’s going to be very tough for Tomic, but I think for him it’s an incredible opportunity for him to show his game to everyone. It’s going to be a great match for him, it’s very exciting and I think it’s going to be a great opportunity for him.’’

Certainly, he plays a style of game Nadal seldom encounters. Wally Masur has compared the languid former junior star to the Greek god of sleep. Jim Courier sees him as a chess player, with an exceptional tennis IQ. But the praise is not universal; Roger Rasheed among those less enamoured of his ‘‘junky’’ style, describing Tomic as an enigma who will quickly be worked out, and his lack of power exposed.

‘‘He knows when to play the junk, that’s the thing,’’ Rafter counters. ‘‘If he knows when to play it, and he works the other guy out, I don’t care how much junk he plays.’’

Indeed, a common reference is to the ‘‘X factor’’, and former doubles star Allan Stone is one of many who draw comparisons with the cat-and-mouse Scot, Andy Murray. ‘‘I think it’s refreshing that someone can play a bit different and still succeed, because we’re so used to seeing the guys just club the ball from the back of the court,’’ said Stone.

‘‘Subtlety, and touch and feel, and using the court and the angles are disappearing from the game, and he seems to be able to bring that. And for some reason, the guys seem to get a bit nervous playing him: they come in and he just rolls it past them; they stay back and he moves them around, then gives them a few junk balls and all of a sudden he cranks it up and hits it a bit harder, and the ball’s gone past you.’’

That has always been Tomic’s way, a gentle lullaby that catches so many off-guard. He says he can hit the ball hard, ‘‘but I don’t do it a lot of the time. That’s sort of not my game, playing hard. I like to play against players, make ’em miss, sort of thing’’.

Courier, indeed, credits Tomic with seeing angles and possibilities where others do not, whose perspective of the court is different to most. ‘‘He’s a real natural tennis player; unique brand,’’ said the US Davis Cup captain, another to compare Tomic to Murray. There is, however a trade-off. Tomic, he says, ‘‘is very developed mentally as a tennis player — physically, not yet’’.

And therein lies the problem. When Mark Philippoussis famously toppled world No.1 Pete Sampras on that explosive Saturday night in 1996, he was a big teenager with a huge serve and game. Rafter’s fear that Tomic’s movement will be exploited is one shared by former top-20 player Masur, for it is all very well to think a good game, but another to be allowed to implement it by the enforcer attempting to win four slams in a row.

‘‘Rafa will turn it into a physical contest, regardless of what tactics Bernie employs,’’ Masur said on Fox Sports. ‘‘So if you take Bernie out on the track now and take his times against Rafa in the 400 [metres], the 100, there’s a big gap, and I think that’s what’s going to be exposed. I just think it doesn’t matter what tactics he employs, Rafa’s got the wheels to deal with it and he will turn it into physical match, and that’s where we’re going to find out where Bernie is physically.’’

Another retired star, Mark Woodforde, was a little more optimistic, describing tonight’s match as a barometer of where Tomic’s game is at and where it is headed. Nadal will push him around and probe for cracks. And while movement is the most obvious structural issue, Tomic’s serve is not considered to be at the same level of a world-class backhand, for example, or his marvellously innate sense of how to play the game.

''Nadal, against some of the players that he doesn't know much about, he's going to be searching for a weakness, so I think at the start he's just going to be moving Bernard left, right, left, right, hitting into the open court, until he senses a weakness,'' said Woodforde, now a commentator and coach. ''There isn't much weakness there, though, because he's a manipulator of the ball and the spin, so it's going to be interesting. If he can stick with Nadal early, then that's terrific. I think it's not out of the question that Bernard can perhaps sneak a set or two.''

Lopez does not like to talk in terms of sets that might be won, but predicts that if Tomic plays well enough, his chances will come. He ranks the Australian in an emerging quartet that includes European prospects Richard Berankis, Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic - dangerous now, likely to be venomous in the future. The problem tonight is that Nadal has no real weakness, so what was good enough against the third-best Spanish left-hander will be insufficient against the best of the best.

Even so, Rafter is happy to confirm his membership of the fan club of a player he describes as ''absolutely'' Australia's best male prospect since Hewitt, who succeeded Philippoussis as the last local teenager to reach the men's third round. And if the serve-volleying Rafter is at a slight loss to describe how Tomic quite manages it, then one does not have to know the secret to a magician's tricks to enjoy his show.

''I still haven't worked him out yet, I can't work out Bernard's game,'' Rafter smiles. ''It's awkward and he's got such a point of difference, and the other guys playing him don't know what's going on, either. So I think he's got them baffled as well, because he's just incredibly awkward, and he's got sneaky weapons.''

He is also stronger and fitter than last year, taller and five kilograms heavier. He has played a big match on centre court, if not anything on the scale of this one. And so the hype-ometer is at maximum capacity, leaving Tomic to deal with the nerves, the anticipation, as the countdown to his big night out ticks on.

''It's excitement, that's what it is,'' said Tomic, who has practised with Nadal previously, but never played him. ''To get this opportunity the first time in my life, it's different. It's an opportunity that I'm going to take, I think.''

News From: www.smh.com.au

Spartacus Gods of the Arena Prequel Season

Spartacus Gods of the Arena Prequel Season Episode 1 Recap

['Spartacus: Gods of the Arena' - 'Past Transgressions']

We are back, ladies and gentlemen. The first few minutes of 'Spartacus: Gods of the Arena' gave us heaping helpings of things we've come to expect from this Starz series: spurting blood, naked bodies, violence, profanity, and, just for grins, Batiatus using a public toilet.

Remind me again, why isn't this airing on ABC Family?

OK, I kid, but it almost felt as though with this first episode back, 'Spartacus' felt a particular need to get in our faces with its most outrageous or provocative content. There couldn't just be sex, there had to be lots and lots of sex of many different varieties; there couldn't just be violence, there had to be unusual beheadings and an extra helping of insanity when it came to the creative use of spurting blood.

All right, all right, we get it -- this is a show about people who use each other for any number of purposes, and the results aren't always pretty. And iff we didn't get the point that bodies are merely so much flesh to be sold by the pound, a couple of scenes were set in a butcher shop.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the show's in-your-face tendencies; after a year without 'Spartacus' I would have beheaded someone myself if this show hadn't returned when it did. I just hope that, in the six episodes of this prequel season, the show can both hold on to its signature sauciness and dig into the characters in the ways that made 'Spartacus: Blood and Sand' much more than the sum of its blood-spattered parts.

'Gods of the Arena,' this new prequel season, is only six episodes long, and it makes me wonder -- in that relatively short time span, can we come to care about Gannicus' plight as much as we did about the lives of Spartacus, Crixus, Doctore or even Barca in 'Spartacus: Blood and Sand'? That remains to be seen.

But the first episode of the prequel season covered a lot of ground quite fluidly and set up several new conflicts with efficient energy, and it was intriguing to see the characters in such different places. How different things were five years ago! Let's take a brief look at then and now, for each of the show's main characters:

Batiatus (John Hannah): It's poignant to see a Batiatus who is, in a way, quite innocent. He's been around, sure, but he's so certain that all it takes to succeed as a ludus owner is persistence and an ability to cross the right palms with silver. How naive! At the end of the episode, his energetic ambition collides with a cold, stark reality: The people who occupy the higher reaches of society don't want the upstarts below them to succeed. Tullius, the man Batiatus had wanted to emulate, ended up pissing in his face. That's one thing I love about the show -- not the abuse via urine, but the way it constantly leaves its characters in unwinnable situations. On a character level and a story level, things are about to get interesting: We know that Batiatus is going to fight and scratch and claw his way out of this hole, but we also know events like these are going to make him every bit as ruthless as the heartless Tullius in a few years. Clearly something will go wrong between the good friends Batiatus and fellow ludus owner Solonius, and no doubt other relationships will suffer as well.Lucretia (Lucy Lawless): It's also poignant to see Batiatus and Lucretia so deeply in love. In a few years' time, they'll still love each other, but as we saw in 'Blood and Sand,' they'll be both be much more scarred and cynical. There might as well have been an "irony alert" sign flashing when Lucretia talked about not wanting to bed a dirty, gross gladiator. As we saw in 'Blood and Sand,' she not only slept with Crixus but had deep feelings for him -- feelings she couldn't quite admit. In any event, once we saw Lucretia as such a loving, supportive wife, that was our clue that things are bound to go at least partly wrong between them. These young marrieds are about to find out just what it will cost them to rise in Capuan society.

Oenomaus (Peter Mensah): Fans of 'Blood and Sand' are probably saying to themselves, "Hey, why is Doctore not being called by his rightful name? What's going on here?" In this prequel season, which is set five years before 'Blood and Sand,' Oenomaus is using the slave name he carried before he took over instruction at Batiatus' ludus. And given that Oenomaus is relatively content as 'Gods of the Arena' begins, my guess is that he's the character who will suffer the most this season. He's got a wife, and even if they are both slaves, they're both being treated relatively well and they get to spend time together. Oenomaus even smiles now and then! Clearly things are about to go very wrong in his life. It's interesting to note, however, that though his circumstances are different, Oenomaus/Doctore is essentially the same guy he was before -- ethical, honest, strong, reliable. I love this character and relish the idea that we'll get to explore his life more fully. Also, I must add that there's no doubt in my mind that Oenomaus' wife will come to a brutal end this season. That's not based on inside knowledge, that's just a guess. Since when do the people in this world ever get to keep what they want? If they do, they generally have to pay a very high price.

Crixus, Ashur and Barca: We see the burly gladiator Crixus when he first arrives at Batiatus' ludus, when his hair was still long and he was mocked for being a "little" guy. Ashur is among the trainees who survived the house's brutal training regimen but has yet to get the brand of the brotherhood. It should be interesting to see how Ashur got the injury that ended his career in the arena. As for Barca, he appears to be the same tough guy, and that's to the good; not everything in life changes all that much in a five-year span.

As far as the show's new characters, Gaia is ringing a few alarm bells for me, though it's too early too tell if she'll end up being a good or bad addition to the cast. If Gaia (who's played by Jaime Murray) ends up being a standard-issue vixen, there to cause soap-opera-style troubles between the lead couple, that might be problematic; so far she's seeming like an overly predictable type. It's too soon to tell, though; we'll have to see what her game is, and if the feelings she apparently has for Lucretia are real or merely part of some secret agenda.

Vettius and Tullius are, so far, relatively one-dimensional villains, but the characters are well played (though Vettius' sneering could get quite old if he doesn't moderate it a bit). In any event, 'Gods of the Arena' is really the story of how Lucretia and Batiatus lost their innocence, so to speak, and John Hannah and Lucy Lawless are so good at playing earlier versions of themselves that it doesn't really matter that not all the show's characters are fully fleshed out (no pun intended).

Of course, the season is also the story of Gannicus, and I think it was wise of the show's writers to make him the opposite of the Spartacus who arrived at Batiatus' ludus five years later. That taciturn man burned with an interior fire and quietly came up with an increasingly canny plan for revenge; he was the unshowy opposite of Gannicus, a heedless bad boy who never thinks about the consequences of his actions.

Will we find out that Gannicus nurses some secret pain that makes him take refuge in wine, women and spectacular feats in the arena? Possibly. That might be an interesting way to go with the prequel season, but the truth is, the character may end up being just one more supporting player in the saga of Lucretia and Batiatus. That might be the wisest course for the 'Spartacus' franchise. I don't know about you, but I still have the memory of Andy Whitfield's performance as Spartacus fresh in my mind, and I don't know that I'm quite ready to emotionally invest in another gladiator's personal saga.

But to see Lucretia and Batiatus fight their way from street brawls to the sands of Capua's shiny new arena? I'm definitely interested in that tale. As I said, I don't know if six episodes will be enough time to tell that story with depth and complexity, but the previous season frequently shocked and surprised me in good ways, so I'm giving 'Gods of the Arena' the benefit of the doubt. And given how energetic the first episode of 'Gods of the Arena' was, our return to Capua is off to a good start.

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