TOMIC ON THE ROPES IN BID FOR BRISBANE RUN
BERNARD Tomic has one more ATP tournament, in Austria next week, to make a case that he deserves a Brisbane International wildcard.
Another chance to grab ranking points slipped on Monday night when Tomic lost 7-6 (7-3), 7-5 to Aldin Setkic, a player from Bosnia and Herzegovina ranked No.178, in the last round of qualifying for the ATP Antwerp tournament.
Tomic, the world No.144, is a direct entry for his last scheduled ATP tournament of the year, in Vienna, for which nine of the top 20 men have entered. A semi-final finish or better there would lift the Gold Coaster past a ranking of No.105, likely to be the cut-off to make the main draw for the Australian Open directly.
But the cut-off for the 32man Brisbane International is generally in the 60-70 rankings range, so Tomic would need winner’s points in Vienna, which is the roughest of long shots given he has won only one of his past six ATP main-draw matches.
Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley said last week that the question of a wildcard for Tomic at Melbourne Park, where he has not played qualifying since he was a 15-year-old, was “a bridge that we will cross when we come to it’’.
Tomic is the fourthranked Aussie, though, and only Brisbane entrant Nick Kyrgios and Hopman Cup signing Thanasi Kokkinakis are guaranteed tennis in the first week of next season.
Tomic’s unavailability for Davis Cup this year would count against his chances of a Brisbane wildcard, balanced by his name recognition in Queensland, former world No.17 ranking and his good Davis Cup win-loss record and previous willingness to play it.