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Tomic apologises as Stosur crashes out of Wimbledon

Bernard Tomic has apologised for his slip of the tongue after blocking out the latest controversy swirling around him to move into the third round at Wimbledon.

Jul 01, 2016, updated Jul 01, 2016
Germany's Sabine Lisicki shakes hands with Samantha Stosur after winning their second round Wimbledon match. Photo: GERRY PENNY, EPA.

Germany's Sabine Lisicki shakes hands with Samantha Stosur after winning their second round Wimbledon match. Photo: GERRY PENNY, EPA.

Tomic eased past Moldovan qualifier Radu Albot 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 6-7 (6-8) 6-3 to set up a clash on Saturday with 14th seed Roberto Bautista-Agut.

The 19th seed’s win came a day after he upset British learning disability charity Mencap for saying he felt “like a retard” waiting on court for eight minutes for his second-round opponent to arrive.

Mencap demanded an apology and the Australian No.2 duly obliged after recovering from a service break down in the fourth set to avoid sapping back-to-back five-setters.

“Look, I apologise if I offended anyone. I’m sorry. It just came out the wrong way,” Tomic said.

But if the backlash from his faux pas proved any distraction it didn’t show as Tomic kept cool under pressure to end the qualifier’s run with a composed display overnight.

“It was a dogfight and I needed to give everything out there,” Tomic said.

It was a different story for Samantha Stosur, who admits she was powerless to stop grasscourt juggernaut Sabine Lisicki from adding to her Wimbledon woes with yet another premature exit from the tennis showpiece.

Runner-up in 2013, Lisicki delivered a serving masterclass to consign the French Open semi-finalist to a 6-4 6-2 second-round defeat, her 14th first-week defeat at the All England Club.

While eight double-faults undermined Stosur’s challenge, Lisicki – owner of the fastest recorded serve in women’s tennis history – was nigh-on untouchable on her monster delivery.

The German only lost two of 22 points on serve in the first set to set the tone and finished off Australia’s 14th seed with her 11th and 12th aces.

“When she’s hitting the line on those serves, even if I went the right way, I wasn’t going to reach them very good,” Stosur said.

“Yeah, when you’re serving out a match like she was and you can serve like that, it’s fantastic, seems very easy.

“She played very well. You kind of know that Sabine is capable of playing like that.

Hoping to make the last 16 for the third time, Tomic is expecting another tough assignment against Bautista-Agut.

“He competes well, he’s an amazing mover and that’s why he’s close to top 10,” Tomic said.

“He’s at a career-high ranking now of around 13 or 14 and I heard he got a default today so energy-wise he’ll be a lot better than me.”

Tomic was the first Australian into the last 32, but was quickly joined by John Millman, who celebrated his Olympic selection on Thursday with a 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 4-6 6-2 upset win over French 26th seed Benoit Paire.

Matt Barton will have the chance to join him after completing an epic first-round win over Frenchman Albano Olivetti in a rain-marred match that started back on Tuesday.

Barton defied 56 aces from Olivetti to land his precious first main-draw win at a grand slam with 6-7 (7-9) 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 6-7 (5-7) 14-12 victory.

The 24-year-old’s reward is a tilt on Saturday at 18th seed John Isner.

But Australia’s top-ranked player and only other women’s hope both bombed out.

But Stosur was philosophical in defeat.

“Look, when you are playing a player who’s playing very well, you have to find a way to do anything you can. I felt like I did that,” she said.

“I tried my hardest.”

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