BERNIE’S FULLY SICK

Fallen Gold Coaster to tackle US Open underdone

BERNARD Tomic’s shortterm tennis plans have become murkier with news that he had cited a virus as his reason for withdrawing from three American tournaments.

Tomic, who has plummeted to No.146 on live rankings, was reported to have cut his foot early last month after his controversial Wimbledon exit in which he laid bare his lack of motivation for tennis, which he said he hoped would return later this year. The former Australian No.1 entered the main draw for the US Open, which starts on Monday week, but if he played it would be without a tournament in seven weeks and he is at a crossroads in his tennis career.

His projected ranking on Monday, down 52 places as he did not defend his ATP Cincinnati quarter-final points, means he will not be ranked highly enough to enter qualifying for even many smaller ATP tournaments in September and October.

“The virus (was) the reason for withdrawal. This was the same reason for his Washington D.C. and Cincinnati withdrawals,’’ an ATP spokesman said.

Unless Tomic bites the bullet and improves his ranking by performing at Challenger level tournaments, he would need to go cap in hand to Tennis Australia for wildcards for its January tournaments.

By contrast, fellow Queenslander Ash Barty has qualified for a second WTA tournament in as many weeks and will play American qualifier Varvara Lepchenko in Cincinnati.

Barty is at a career-best No.48 ranking after making the third round in Toronto last week. Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal is guaranteed to return to the No.1 ranking on Monday next week for the first time since 2014.

Third-ranked Roger Federer pulled out of this week’s Cincinnati field to rest a back injury before the US Open, meaning his chances to overtake Nadal’s ranking points tally by winning Cincinnati were dashed.