By Alberto Amalfi | @Tennis_Now | Monday, December 4, 2023
Bernard Tomic is rebuilding his ranking.
That won’t necessarily earn the 31-year-old Aussie a wild card into Australian Open qualifying.
Playing primarily Challenger events, Tomic has rised to No. 287 in the rankings after finishing the 2022 season ranked No. 462.
Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley told the media Tomic’s past tiffs with the TA will not impact the prospect of a wild card, but was non-commital on Tomic receiving an Australian Open qualifying wild card.
“It’s not so much about the relationship, but it’s about if they’re deserving,” Tiley told the Australian media. “The things we consider—the form of the player coming in, there is a factor looking at age in some instances because do you want to give a younger player the opportunity versus one who’s been the journeyman for a while?”
Tiley said a final decision on Australian Open main draw wild cards will be made in the coming days.
“We haven’t made the decisions in qualifying yet,” Tiley said. “We’ve made quite a few decisions on the main draw which we’ll announce in the coming days.”
Bernard Tomic, who lists his sister, Sara Tomic, as his current coach, lost to Roman Safiullin in the 2022 Australian Open qualifying. Tomic, who reached the AO fourth round in both 2015 and 2016, qualified for the 2021 Australian Open main draw and reached the second round losing to Denis Shapovalov.
Photo credit: Leonardo Munoz/EPA
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