Tennis Tomic, Not Kyrgios, Should Be The Aussie Fielding Questions Following Latest Wimbledon Meltdown

By Ricky Dimon

 

With Bernard Tomic not exactly relevant on the ATP Tour anymore, Nick Kyrgios is the one constantly getting pasted by Australian media. And worldwide media, for that matter. But among his fellow Aussies, he used to have company from Tomic in the spotlight Down Under.

 

That’s not to say Kyrgios doesn’t deserve to get roasted every now and then. He does; his behavior is out of control far too often.

 

So it wasn’t entirely surprising when a Sydney-based reporter, Ken Sutcliffe, tweeted the following last week:

 

“Nick Kyrgios I hate to say this but for the sake of your health and the health of tennis give the game away.”

With Tomic having been off the radar, Kyrgios is the one getting calls to retire. But now it is Tomic who is back in the news, and–as usual–not for the right reasons. The 26-year-old lost his opening match at Wimbledon on Tuesday 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 in 58 minutes. That’s right; 58 minutes. It invoked memories of the shortest completed match in ATP history, which also involved Tomic. At the 2008 Miami Masters, the Aussie lost to Jarkko Nieminen 6-0, 6-1 in a mere 27 minutes. There were questions after that one, and there were questions after this one. “Are you feeling okay,” he was asked in his press conference following the loss to Tsonga.

 

“Well, yeah, I just played terrible,” Tomic answered.

 

He was then asked–in various forms–about his effort level.

 

In between declining to answer certain questions, the former world No. 17 had this to say: “Well, I returned pretty bad. Didn’t see his serve. Pretty terrible match…. Tough first round. I knew if I didn’t feel good I’d lose this match quickly. We played so fast. It’s not like we’re gonna have a lot of rallies out there, for sure.”

 

When asked if he has the same passion for tennis as he did when he was younger, Tomic replied, “Yes.”

 

And does he think he will get fined for a lack of effort? “I think I played as best as I could. It’s just I played terrible.”

 

Whatever the case, Tomic vs. Tsonga is perhaps the most bizarre occurrence to have taken place so far at Wimbledon in 2019. But with Kyrgios still in both the men’s singles (playing against Rafael Nadal!) and mixed doubles draws, more shenanigans could be in store. Stay tuned….

 

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on twitter at @Dimonator.