2012 was not a good year for Bernard Tomic.

It didn’t start that way, of course.  At the start of 2012, Tomic looked, for all the world, that he and Milos Raonic would fight for best newcomer of the year.  He reached the semis of Brisbane losing to Andy Murray.  He won an exhibition where he beat Berdych, Monfils, and Fish, all players ranked in the top ten, at least at some point in their career.  He had a tough opener in Melbourne needing five sets to beat former Aussie Open semifinalist, Fernando Verdasco.  Although Verdasco of 2012 was not Verdasco of 2009, he still had the kind of power that could have (and did) bother Tomic.

Tomic would claw his way through that match beating the heat, then requesting his subsequent matches be played at night which the Aussies were only too happy to accommodate.  Tomic would beat Dolgopolov, then face Roger Federer.  Of course, Federer being Federer handed Tomic a beatdown, and Tomic realized that he needed a better game if he wanted to get past the Swiss maestro.

But then 2012 would make a turn for the worse.  He lost in the first round at Memphis (to Ivan Dodig), the first round at Indian Wells, the second round at Miami, the second round at Monte Carlo, the second round at Barcelona, the first round at Madrid, the second round at Rome, Nice, and Roland Garros.  He lost in his first match at Halle, Eastbourne, and Wimbledon.  The losses mounted at Stuttgart, Gstaad, and the Olympics.  He lost in the second round at the Toronto and US Open and finished the year with three straight first round losses.  His ranking is now in the 50s.

That was his on-court woes.  He also had off-court woes.  Apparently Bernie likes fast cars and the Aussie cops don’t.  He blamed them for targeting him specifically, and they probably were, but Bernie apparently likes to play the persecution card, believing he has an entitlement card that allows him to do whatever he wants.  He held parties that caught the eye of paparazzi.

Tomic’s dad is a bit of a tyrant, though that’s probably too strong a word.  Tomic’s life seems to mimic Capriati minus the drugs (one hopes), but high on the partying.  This isn’t the kind of work ethic that Aussies appreciate, and his fellow senior compadres came out to tell him so.

It’s not that Tomic doesn’t want to be good.  I think he does. It’s just that he wants to have fun too, and could use a good deal of Nadal or Ferrer humility.  Even so, that self=confidence has likely gotten him where he is.  Many players need absurd amounts of ego to play at the level they do.  Uncertainty can often breed losses, but ego often breeds people who need a personality transplant.

In any case, Tomic had to realize that he’d be branded a failure and this might lead to a curtailment of his extravagant lifestyle.  And, in any case, his ego should demand that he does better.

And, so whatever preparations he did at the end of 2011, he must have done again at the end of 2012, and he’s added to his arsenal.  Tomic’s two big weaknesses (other than raw power) is his speed (he’s slow) and his ability to read the return of serve (decidedly poor).  He’s still kinda slow, but there have been other slow-ish players (Berdych, Soderling, etc) that have overcome slowness by hitting hard.  Tomic, by contrast, isn’t a power hitter.  Up until now, he relied on his ability to power his forehand down the line whenever he ran into trouble.

He’s now added a similar shot on his backhand.  The down-the-line shot has been supplanted in the 2000s and 2010s by the crosscourt forehand of either the standard or inside-out variety.  It used to be the mainstay of players in the 1980s, most notably, one Ivan Lendl who used it to great effect off both wings.  Tomic is trying to revive this shot, and he used it to beat Tommy Haas and Novak Djokovic.

Unlike last year where Tomic went super finesse, almost forgoing hard shots like it was going out of style, this year, he’s trying to blend power with his finesse game, realizing he needs both if he is to win.  It’s the same realization that Andy Murray made though Murray was less likely, in the past, to be nearly the finesse player that Tomic is (and, of course, Murray is precisely strong where Tomic is weak–he’s very fast and he returns exceptionally well).

Tomic has a chance to fix up his game and make the impact he should have in 2012.  Perhaps all the bad press he got from that year finally sunk in.  Of course, with his ranking now mired in the 50s, he’ll be unseeded heading into Australia, and hoping that his opening round match isn’t a top 4 player.  But with the way he’s playing now, he might relish the challenge.  Even so, it’s probably best for him to find himself paired with a wildcard or a lowly seed to give him a chance to work into the match.

Tomic won’t be the only unseeded floater in the Australian Open.  He’ll be joined by Gael Monfils.  Here’s to hoping the enigmatic Tomic will finally worry more about his game and less about his car.