Austria Tomic’s last hope for Brisbane wildcard

BERNARD Tomic has one more ATP tournament — in Austria next week — to make a case that he deserves a wildcard into the Brisbane International.

Another chance to grab career-stabilising ranking points slipped on Monday night when Tomic lost 7-6 (7-3), 7-5 to Aldin Setkic, a player from Bosnia and Herzegovina ranked No.178, in the last round of qualifying for the ATP Antwerp tournament.

Tomic, the world No.144, is a direct entry for his last scheduled ATP tournament of the year, in Vienna, for which nine of the top 20 men have entered.

A semi-final finish or better there would lift the Gold Coaster past a ranking of No.105, likely to be the cutoff for the main draw for the Australian Open.

But the cut-off for the 32-man Brisbane International is generally in the 60-70 rankings range, so Tomic would need winner’s points in Vienna.

Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley said last week the question of a wildcard for Tomic at Melbourne Park, where he has not played qualifying since he was a 15year-old, was “a bridge that we will cross when we come to it’’.

Tomic is the fourth-ranked Australian, though, and only Brisbane entrant Nick Kyrgios and Hopman Cup signing Thanasi Kokkinakis are guaranteed tennis in the first week of next season.

Tomic’s unavailability for Davis Cup this year would count against his chances of a Brisbane wildcard, balanced by his in Queensland, former world No.17 ranking and his good Davis Cup win-loss record and previous willingness to play it.