Tomic reached the third round at the 2011 Australian Open(credit:
Scott Barbour/Getty Images)
Bernard Tomic will be competing in the Kooyong Classic as part of his preparations for 2012 Australian Open.
Tomic enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2011, rising to 42 in the world and the Aussie public will be extremely excited to see what the teenager can bring to the table in 2012 after reaching the Wimbledon quarter-finals last summer.
Tomic has always performed well at the Aussie Open, reaching the third round last year before falling to Rafael Nadal. And he'll be finalising his preparations for the tournament at the eight man AAMI Classic which runs from January 11-14.
The Kooyong Classic field is always strong and this year it features three top ten players with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Tomas Berdych and Mardy Fish. Tomic will also face competition from another exciting young prospect, hard serving Milos Raonic who made his name in Melbourne Park last year, coming through qualifying to make the fourth round.
Andy Roddick, Gael Monfils and Jurgen Melzer will complete the field. It looks set to be an exciting few days and tournament organiser Colin Stubs has done a fine job as ever of assembling the field.
"I'm looking forward to seeing how two of the world's most exciting prospects (Tomic and Raonic) take on the more highly-ranked players, like Mardy and Andy,'' Stubs said. "We're delighted that Mardy, following his best year on the circuit, has decided to prepare for the Australian Open at Kooyong.''