While Lleyton Hewitt would do anything for an extra couple of inches, towering Bernard Tomic is desperate for his growth spurt to end.
Rising teenager Tomic fears his 194 cm frame is still growing and dreads the thought of resembling a “basketballer” more than a tennis player.
The 17-year-old’s court movement has been seen as an achilles heel with former Davis Cup captain John Newcombe among his sternest critics.
The Tomic camp recently employed renowned conditioner Yutaka Nakamura to improve on his fitness and he took three months off after winning the Junior US Open to address his weakness.
But the Gold Coaster, given the last wildcard for next week’s Brisbane International, said his continued growth added another difficult factor into the equation.
“I am [still growing] unfortunately, hopefully I can stop,” he said after an hour-long practice at the Queensland Tennis Centre.
“Obviously I don’t want to be the height of a basketballer, I want to be a good size tennis player but I will deal with it any way.”
Tomic stands a touch taller than grand slam winners Goran Ivanisevic and Marat Safin but is still four centimetres shorter than US Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro.
Hewitt isn’t exactly small at 180 cm but is the shortest world No.1 of the modern era and now struggles to compete with taller champions Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
According to Tennis Australia’s records, Tomic was 191 cm 12 months ago, not 184 cm as claimed in recent reports, and was listed at 194 cm in September, suggesting his growth spurt may have already stopped.
Tomic became the youngest male to win a match at the Australian Open this January and is confident of producing far more in 2010, especially with a serve approaching 200kmh.
“Last year [2009] was a totally different year, it’s one year I’ve grown and I’m more experienced now and so if I can put that into matches when it starts it will be good,” he said.
“I’m playing well now, I had a bit of time off after New York and start working with Yutaka and fitness wise I’m getting good.
“I’m getting stronger each day since I started working with Yutaka.”
Like Brisbane, Tomic has been granted a wildcard to play Melbourne Park again after narrowly missing out on winning one by losing a five-set final at this month’s wildcard play-offs.
“It was good fun, I had a lot of matches and I learned a lot from it,” he said.
“It will give me a lot of confidence and hopefully I can put it together when [the Brisbane International] starts.”