Bernard Tomic thinks he competed in ‘toughest top-10/15’ era

Bernard Tomic thinks he competed during “the toughest top-10/15 group” and admits it was basically impossible for him to make a real Grand Slam breakthrough with the presence of the Big Four and some other big names from that period.

As an 18-year-old qualifier, the Australian made his first Slam quarterfinal at 2011 Wimbledon before losing to Novak Djokovic. After that result, the former Grand Slam junior champion was also tipped to win Majors on pro level but he never again reached another Slam quarterfinal.

In the next couple of years, Tomic only made the round-of-16 six times – three times at the Australian Open and twice at Wimbledon. The players that beat him in those matches are Tomas Berdych (twice), Roger Federer, Andy Murray, and Lucas Pouille.

Tomic: Nobody could play a Grand Slam quarterfinal or a semifinal except those guys

“Oh, everything’s getting better. I mean, top 10, top 20 when I played was the toughest – Federer, Rafa, Novak, Murray. There were also guys like Berdych or del Potro. This was the toughest top 10, top 15. It was ridiculous,” the former world No. 17 told Punto de Break.

“I mean, nobody could play a quarters or semis of a Slam. Like, if someone comes to a semi, we would be like, ‘Wow, who’s this?’ It would always be those four guys, five guys. 

“It’s changed a lot, but back 10 years ago, guys ranked 600 or 700 would not be beating guys top 100. Now, every week in Challengers guys are losing to guys 600, 700. Everybody’s good now.”

Truth be told, only a couple of players outside the Big Four managed to win Grand Slam titles between 2005 and 2020 – Stan Wawrinka, Juan Martin del Potro, Marin Cilic and Dominic Thiem.

Over the years, many former stars from that period admitted that winning a Major was an extremely tough task back then when in order to do so they needed to clinch consecutive wins over Big Four members. 

Meanwhile, 32-year-old Tomic – who is now ranked at No. 216 in the world – hasn’t played in a Slam main draw since losing to Denis Shapovalov in the 2021 Australian Open second round.