Tomic suffers ranking slide
WAYWARD Gold Coast tennis star Bernard Tomic has returned to the top tier of the tennis tour with a frustrating and costly first-round loss.
The 25-year-old’s ranking – now outside the top 200 – will slide further after he failed to serve out the match against 71st-ranked veteran Victor Troicki in the first round of the Istanbul Open.
Tomic was leading 5-3 in the third and final set but capitulated losing the final four games, going down on the clay 3-6, 6-0, 7-5 in just over two hours. Tomic, formerly the world number 17, wasn’t ranked high enough to even make the qualification draw of the ATP World Tour 250 event. But organisers had awarded him a wildcard at their discretion directly into the main draw.
He was a quarter-finalist at the event last year with ranking points to defend and will now see his rank drop even further, with some commentators suggesting it could dip outside 230.
As one commentator said at the conclusion of the match, despite encouraging signs from Tomic – who has been absent from the main tour for three months – it was back to the drawing board and practice court for him.
Unless he gets further wildcards into ATP-level events, he faces a long battle back grinding away on the second-tier tour.
His most recent appearance on the ATP main tour was his Australian Open final round qualifying loss in January.