PARIS, May 25, 2016

Bernard Tomic started his Roland Garros campaign with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 win over Brian Baker on Tuesday. The 23-year-old Australian hit 40 winners and capitalized on four of his seven break points to prevail in one hour and 40 minutes.

“I was very pleased, very happy. It was going to be tough. He played well here in previous years. He didn’t give me rhythm. He’s attacking a lot. For me I knew I had to be on my game and play well. I was happy, very happy. There were times I just didn’t feel comfortable on court. It was the first match at Roland Garros, which is not easy. I was happy with the win today for sure,” Tomic told afterwards and added:

“The big points I played very well, and I was very happy with what I did. So pleased I won because clay is not easy for me.”

The 20th seed will next face Borna Coric, who dismissed fellow-teenager Taylor Fritz in three sets.

“Borna loves playing on clay. He’s going to stay in the point a lot. That’s where I have to obviously play well. I’ve beaten him before on hard court in Indian Wells, but clay is a different surface. He prefers to play me on this surface for sure. On paper it looks like I should win the match, but it’s a very difficult match.”

A couple of days ago, Tomic even told that he “sucks” on clay. Ahead of the French Open, the world number 22 lost all of his matches on the dirt this season in Bucharest, Istanbul, Madrid and Rome. He could only gain one victory at the Ecuador Open in Quito against Roberto Carballés-Baena in February.

“I just feel uncomfortable. I’m just going to go out there, like I said, and try to win as many matches as I can here. Third round is my target, it’s a goal, and if I can reach that and if I play one more good match, then I have nothing to lose and I can come out on matches ahead. This is going to be a very tough match for me. I’ll try everything to win it.”