Tomic paying a heavy price
BERNARD Tomic intends to enter qualifying for the Brisbane International and the Australian Open, indicating firmly he expects a January circuit without Tennis Australia wildcard favours.
Tomic has slumped in the rankings from No.26 to No.141 this year but is still the fourthranked Australian man.
The 25-year-old former Australian No.1 has pulled out of a Challenger tournament in Italy next week and will have a break ahead of pre-season training.
It is significant that Tomic has not yet sought to enter qualifying for the Sydney International, which is played in the second week of the season from January 7 and is an event he won in 2013.
Qualifying rounds for the Australian Open start in the middle of the Sydney tourna- ment week and he could not play both.
“Bernard is done for the season. He’s currently entered into Brisbane and Australian Open qualifying,” Tomic’s agent Matthew Fawcett said.
Tomic’s entries for qualifying in the two January tournaments would show he is determined to play home events even though Tennis Australia has done nothing to dispel beliefs that its wildcards will go to other, mostly younger, Australians.
The Gold Coaster rejected Davis Cup selection this year by TA and dismayed TA when he admitted feigning injury in a Wimbledon loss and being “a little bit bored” on court.
The Brisbane International yesterday announced a third women’s top-10 entrant, France’s Caroline Garcia, and Australian No.3 Sam Stosur as players to join the field.
Eighth-ranked Garcia won three WTA titles this year, including the Wuhan, China final in which she saw off Ash Barty in three sets last month.
Brisbane’s Lizette Cabrera made the quarter-finals of the $US125,000 ($A165,000) Taipei Open with a 6-2, 7-5 win over world No.83 Evgeniya Rodina.
In Japan, Brisbane’s John Millman made the Toyota Challenger semi-finals with a 7-5, 6-2 defeat of compatriot Max Purcell.
Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal has won a defamation case against a former French sports minister over her doping slur.
Roselyne Bachelot was ordered by a Paris court to pay €10,000 ($A15,500) in damages to Nadal on Thursday after she said on French television that the Spaniard’s sevenmonth injury lay-off in 2012 was “probably due to a positive doping test”.