Feeble Tomic under scrutiny again

BERNARD Tomic is certain to come under the scrutiny of Wimbledon officials after another feeble grand slam surrender.

The Queenslander flopped 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 against France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in only 58 minutes — the fastest men’s singles loss of the tournament.

In a match with echoes of the Queenslander’s equally feeble French Open surrender to Taylor Fritz, Tomic earned $81,000, making each of the 47 points he won worth $1723.

“I just played terrible,” Tomic said. “I returned pretty bad. Didn’t see his serve. Pretty terrible match. Played well last week. This week, tough first round. I knew if I didn’t feel good I’d lose this match quickly. We played so fast. It’s not like we're gonna have a lot of rallies out there, for sure.

“I think I played as best as I could. It’s just I played terrible. And he served 24 aces.”

Tournament officials will review the match and make a judgment under the sport’s “best efforts” provisions.

Tsonga said he expected Tomic to play the way he did.

“He’s always played like this,” the Australian Open finalist said. “I remember I played him a few times, and once was difficult because he just played like this, dropshot, was playing well.”

Tomic’s exit came as Alex de Minaur and John Millman powered into the second round. A mystery Spanish psychologist has emerged as de Minaur’s secret weapon as the tyro attempts to reach the second week of a major for the first time. Due to face heavyhitting American Steve Johnson in the second round, de Minaur said the psychologist had transformed his mindset.

“It’s unbelievable the rise I have had, thanks to the work I have done with him,” de Minaur said after trouncing French Open semi-finalist and Marco Cecchinato in straight sets.