Tomic provides hope for Aussie tennis

Reports of the death of Australian tennis as we know it have been greatly exaggerated.

Bernard Tomic's history-making victory in the Australian Open junior boys' championship, Jessica Moore's near miss in the girls' event, the magical run of Casey Dellacqua and the re-emergence of Lleyton Hewitt as a grand slam force have shown there are indeed signs of life.

If Hewitt has been the heartbeat of Australian tennis over the past decade, Tomic emphatically confirmed he will be the sport's next saviour with a brilliant 5-7 7-6 (7-5) 6-0 Australia Day win over Taiwan's big-serving Tsung-Hua Yang in the junior final at Melbourne Park.

At a mere 15 years and three months, Tomic courageously recovered from a set and service break down to trump the near-18-year-old Yang and become the youngest grand slam junior champion in history - surpassing even the deeds of legends Bjorn Borg and Ken Rosewall.

Make no mistake, Tomic is ridiculously good.

Boasting unlimited potential, he is now officially ranked the world's third-best junior despite conceding almost three years to his peers.

"I want the serve of Goran Ivanisevic, the heart of Lleyton Hewitt, the mind of Pete Sampras and the groundstrokes of Roger Federer and I want to be No.1 in the world and win all the grand slam tournaments," Tomic famously declared last year.

Now his Open victory has only served to further vindicate his prodigious talents after the German-born, Gold Coast-based son of Croatian parents added a third prestigious Orange Bowl trophy to his resume late last year in Florida.

Tomic's grand slam breakthrough also comes hot on the heels of his spectacular win over Taiwan's world No.147 Yeu-Tzuoo Wang in the first round of qualifying for the men's main draw at Melbourne Park.

At this rapid rate, many are tipping Tomic to join the likes of Roger Federer, David Nalbandian, Andy Murray and Marcos Baghdatis in cracking the world's top 10 after winning junior grand slam trophies.

In fact, few in the know are doubting Tomic will be playing alongside the sport's elite even long before his 18th birthday in October 2010.

With 17-year-old Jessica Moore falling 6-3 6-4 to Dutch left-hander Arantxa Rus in the girls' final, Australia narrowly missed pulling off a rare junior grand slam double in Melbourne.

But Moore's emergence and Dellacqua's career-best advancement to the last 16 of the women's singles have nonetheless given Australian tennis two more shooting stars.

And with Novak Djokovic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga making the men's Open decider, suddenly Hewitt doesn't look that far off the pace.

Hewitt's only defeats of the summer came against Djokovic in Melbourne, Tsonga in Adelaide and Chris Guccione in Sydney, where Australia's former world No.1 did not face one solitary break point in the 7-6 7-6 loss to his Davis Cup teammate.

It stands to reason that if the mighty Federer came back to the field in Melbourne - rather than Djokovic and Tsonga exceeding the Swiss master's excellence of the past four years - Hewitt is well-placed among those closing the gap at the top of men's tennis.