Bernard Tomic’s Australian Open comeback bid ends in disaster – and Lleyton Hewitt’s son also struggles
Bernard Tomic’s attempt to return to the Grand Slam circuit has seen him smashed off the court in an embarrassing straight-sets loss at Melbourne’s Kia Arena on Tuesday.
The former world No.17 needed to win three straight sudden-death matches to qualify for the Australian Open but fell at the first hurdle, going down 6-3, 6-1 to Slovakia’s Jozef Kovalik, who is ranked 128 in the world.
Tomic’s heavy defeat comes after he also endured a horror loss when he contested his first tournament final for six years, going down 6-0, 6-1 in just 39 minutes to America’s Learner Tien in the Fairfield Challenger in San Francisco last October.
That loss set a world record for the fastest defeat in an Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Challenger Event.
Tomic – who is currently ranked 214th in the world – last played in his home Grand Slam in 2021 and has never made it further than the fourth round in his 11 appearances at the tournament.
Last year Tomic earned $101,170 playing in Challenger and Future events in spots such as Wichita, Little Rock and Calabasas.
Tomic – once ranked 17th in the world – crashed out of the qualifiers for the Australian Open on Tuesday in embarrassing fashion
The polarising Aussie was wiped off the court in just 61 minutes as he fell to a straight-sets loss to Slovakia’s Jozef Kovalik
The news wasn’t any better for Cruz Hewitt (pictured), who also went out in straight sets – but unlike Tomic, the 16-year-old will have many more chances to play his home Grand Slam
The 32-year-old would have more than doubled that in one week if he’d qualifies for the Open to secure a minimum $132,000 payday for even losing in the first round.
At the other end of the spectrum, 16-year-old Cruz Hewitt – the son of former Australian Open runner-up Lleyton and half the age of Tomic – lost out in his attempt to qualify for the first time.
Handed a wildcard, Hewitt fell to Georgia’s 201-ranked Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-1, 6-4.
The Aussie gave his fans a taste of what he’s capable of at such a young age when he saved four break points in the second set to trail 4-3.
Hewitt’s defeat came after he was in the headlines after his friend Nick Kyrgios appeared to attack him on social media for posting a photo of himself with world No.1 Jannik Sinner.
The controversial Aussie has called Sinner’s breach of the the sport’s anti-doping program ‘disgusting’ and has gone out of his way to take shots at the Italian at every opportunity.
Kyrgios commented under Cruz’s post: ‘Love ya Cruz but this is wild’, then later adding ‘Cooked post’ with a needle emoji.
The Aussie firebrand also wrote: ‘Thought we were boys’ with several broken-heart emojis.
Sinner later shared Cruz’s photo and posted: ‘Thanks for joining, good hit!’
