Tomic lost for words after early exit

BERNARD Tomic has turned on himself once again in a sour aftermath to his first-round French Open exit at Roland Garros.

Tomic shot down suggestions he was only playing tennis for money as he cut not so much a dejected but petulant figure after his 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 loss to Argentine battler Marco Trungelliti. While Trungelliti rejoiced in penning the feel-good story of the tournament, having driven 10 hours from Barcelona to Paris on the eve of the match just to play as a lucky loser from qualifying, Tomic delivered another PR disaster in a sulky postmatch press conference.

The 25-year-old offered up a total of 64 words in response to 10 questions from an international tennis media eager to gain an insight into the mind of one of the sport’s biggest enigmas.

“Yeah, I guess I was OK,” Tomic said when asked if his gruelling run of seven wins on European clay had taken a toll on him physically in the two-hour, 54-minute defeat.

“Yeah, we’ll see. We’ll see what’s next,” when asked if he could take renewed confidence into his preferred grasscourt season.

Last night at the Open, play was interrupted because of rain.

Third-seeded Marin Cilic and Australian James Duckworth played for a little more than one hour on Court Philippe Chatrier before they were sent back to the locker room by tournament officials.