TOMIC’S PLAYING FUTURE UP IN THE AIR

BERNARD Tomic has withdrawn from qualifying for the Brisbane International, casting further uncertainty over his tennis future.

Tomic’s entry to the qualifying rounds starting on Saturday at the Queensland Tennis Centre has been withdrawn this week.

The former Australian Davis Cup player has entered qualifying for the Australian Open next month and there has been no indication other than that what his intentions are in future tournaments.

Tomic and other Australian players are waiting to see whether they receive one of the remaining Tennis Australia wildcards into the main draw of the year’s first Grand Slam event.

Tomic was reduced to playing qualifying because of a poor run of results this year that saw his ranking tumble from No.26 to No.140. His commitment to tennis was widely panned in July when he said he was “bored” by it, didn’t care if he won even grand slam matches and played only for money.

He played ATP qualifying at one European tournament and one Challenger event there late in the season.

Tomic’s case for Tennis Australia wildcards at his time of need was not helped by his unavailability for Davis Cup this year and his decisions to skip this month’s Australian Open wildcard playoffs and not take up an invitation to a training camp of Davis Cup team members in Melbourne.

Former Australian Davis Cup captain John Newcombe said last month that if Tomic could not commit himself to a higher level of fitness training he should take six months off to decide if he really wanted a tennis career.