Cilic full of praise for Tomic after five-set battle

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Croatia''s Marin Cilic survived a titanic battle with tyro Bernard Tomic to reach the third round of the Australian Open on Wednesday.

Cilic, who is undefeated this year after successfully defending his title in Chennai, twice fought his way back from a set down and then fought off three break points late in the fifth set before getting the vital break himself.

"I feel very tired," Cilic said after a match that lasted almost four hours and did not finish until after 2am local time.

"We had a lot of long rallies right from the beginning of the match.

"The last set was a physical battle and I won because I''ve had more matches than him."

Despite his loss, Tomic displayed composure beyond his tender years and enhanced his reputation as Australia''s heir apparent to Lleyton Hewitt, who has been struggling with injuries and starting to slip down the rankings.

Australia have been anxious to find another man to lead the next generation and the Gold Coast teenager looms as the obvious candidate after winning the Australian Open junior title in 2008 then making a spectacular debut at the senior event last year.

Given a wildcard entry, the then 16-year-old became the youngest man in professional tennis to win a match at the Australian Open when he defeated Italy''s Potito Starace 7-6 1-6 7-6 7-6.

He won last year''s U.S. Open junior title and has risen almost 500 places in the world rankings to 289 but needed another wildcard to get into the first grand slam of 2010.

Tomic won his opening match against French qualifier Guillaume Rufin and although he came up short against Cilic, the Croatian said it would not be long before he was regularly beating senior players.

"He''s very uncomfortable to play," Cilic said. "His serve is good and he hits a lot of flat balls.