Bernard Tomic is again under fire after his 10th Wimbledon campaign lasted less than an hour.
After being fined and losing his racquet sponsor for feigning injury and saying he was “a little bored” during a listless defeat loss to Mischa Zverev in 2017, Tomic again bombed out in the first round in the shortest men’s singles match at the All England Club in 15 years.
A one-time teenage quarter-finalist, Tomic slumped to a 6-2 6-1 6-4 loss in 58 minutes to big-serving veteran Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Fans looked bemused as the world No.96 offered token resistance, barely running for shots as the 34-year-old Tsonga cruised through to the second round.
Social media channels lit up with Wimbledon followers slating Tomic’s apparent lack of effort with “appalling”, “embarrassing” and “playing in slow motion”.
Commentating on BBC TV, former British No.1 John Lloyd said he could have watched a more competitive match in his local park.
“Yeah, I mean, I played pretty bad,” Tomic said.
“I just played terrible.”
But when asked if he’d given his best effort, Tomic rolled his eyes and said “next question, please”.
“I played as best as I could. It’s just I played terrible. And he served 24 aces or …”
Twenty one aces, in fact, came from Tsonga’s racquet in just 12 services games from the Frenchman.
“I played well last week. This week, tough first round,” Tomic said.
“I knew if I didn’t feel good, I’d lose this match quickly. We played so fast. It’s not like we’re going to have a lot of rallies out there.”
After failing to defend third-round points from last year, Tomic is projected to tumble outside the world’s top 100 after Wimbledon.
The 26-year-old faces a fight to make the main-draw direct entry cut-off for the US Open starting in late August.
“Try and do tournaments at Newport, Atlanta, Washington, all their hard courts,” Tomic said when asked what was next.
“I’ve got to get ready for that, for sure.”
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