Tomic set to play in US Open

BERNARD Tomic will play the US Open next week and has entered tournaments in each of the last six weeks of the ATP season, his manager said.

Tomic has not played since Wimbledon last month, with his extended absence and comments about how “trapped’’ he felt by tennis giving rise to doubts about when he would return to the tour.

The Gold Coaster’s ranking has fallen to No. 146 since the entries were cut off for the 128man draw for the US Open, which starts on Monday, and he has withdrawn from his past four tournaments, citing a virus for three.

“He is playing the US Open,’’ manager Matthew Fawcett said yesterday.

“Following that he is planning to play Chengdu, Tokyo, Shanghai, Antwerp or Stockholm or Moscow, Vienna and Paris.’’

The ATP has a regulation that year- end top 30 players – which Tomic was in 2016 – are guaranteed main- draw entries into ATP 500 tournaments the following year, regardless of ranking.

Vienna, from November 23- 29, is also an ATP 500 event.

He has entered two ATP 250 tournaments, the first of which is Chengdu, which has an entry cut- off of No. 79.

Shanghai and Paris, which ends the ATP season for all men except qualifiers for the ATP Finals, are both ATP 1000 tournaments for which Tomic would either need strong results at the US Open or a wildcard from organisers.