- Wildcard unlikely for Brisbane International this month
- Tomic’s current 214th place in the world ranking is his Achilles heel
- He will seek to qualify for the Australian Open in January
He was once ranked 17th in the world and reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals, but don’t expect fallen Australian tennis star Bernard Tomic to concede any favors from tournament organizers Brisbane International.
Tomic, 32, is reported to be training on the Gold Coast with the intention of playing in next month’s Australian Open qualifiers, and would have loved to have had a wild card to play in Brisbane.
The problem is his current world ranking of 214, meaning Tomic will only appear in Brisbane if he first wins a series of qualifying matches.
He The December 29-January 5 event will be headlined by 24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic and Tournament director Cam Pearson has all but closed the door on Tomic gaining a direct entry.
Three Australian players will receive wildcards into the 32-man main draw and, tellingly, 11 local stars outside the world’s top 55 have a better ATP ranking than Tomic.
“The rankings will determine the field for the playoffs and also a couple of wild cards,” Pearson said.
“We haven’t made any decisions on wild cards, but I suspect it would be quite difficult to give him one.”
Pearson was impressed by Tomic’s career resurgence, after his world ranking fell to 825th in 2022.
Notably, Tomic has competed in low level events in Mexico, Dominican Republic, Qatar, Kuwait, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Turkey, Brazil, Thailand, India, Colombia, Spain, United States and Canada in an attempt to rebuild his ranking.
Retired Australian Davis Cup representative John Millman praised Tomic’s grafts around the world.
‘I love it. What an effort for Bernie to come back,” Millman told Fairfax.
‘Coming out and going through the Futures and Challengers the way he has is huge. These are really unglamorous tournaments.
“I think he’s had to do it pretty hard at times and he’s managed to get through it.”
Better news for local tennis fans is that Nick Kyrgios will play in Brisbane after two injury-plagued years.