Tomic’s last wildcard hope goes up in smoke
BERNARD Tomic has missed out on Tennis Australia’s reallocated Brisbane International wildcard, which has gone to Sydney 18-year-old Alex de Minaur.
De Minaur was yesterday awarded Tennis Australia’s third men’s wildcard into the main draw at the Queensland Tennis Centre, with Tomic overlooked, as expected, as he withdrew from Brisbane qualifying earlier this week.
The wildcard became avail- able when Australian No.2 Matt Ebden was elevated to the main draw with the withdrawal of Rafael Nadal from the Brisbane event, which starts today.
De Minaur, ranked No.208, now has a boxed set of wildcards into all of Tennis Australia’s summer tournaments, having won the Australian Open wildcard playoffs and also been given a wildcard into the Sydney International.
Tomic, ranked No.140, is still among the entries for Australian Open qualifying, but a reason for his Brisbane with- drawal has not been given to Tennis Australia.
The Gold Coaster did not take up an offer from Tennis Australia to join Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt’s team, which trained this month in Melbourne, in a first step to rejoining the team environment he rejected early this year.
Tomic’s sister Sara, 19, ranked No.462, was given a wildcard by Tennis Australia into qualifying for the Brisbane International.
“Lleyton wanted him to get back in the fold so everyone can get reacquainted with him and see where he’s at,’’ Tennis Australia director of performance Wally Masur said.
“He wasn’t in Melbourne and my understanding is he’s been training in and around the Gold Coast this month.
“We all know his talent and players can have ups and downs. If Bernie can find what he enjoys about the game and get to whatever that motivation was and couple it with some hard work, he could be back to that top-20 position fairly quickly.’’