Bernard Tomic ends four-year wait for ATP Tour win with comeback over fellow Aussie Rinky Hijikata at Mallorca Open
The party was over years ago, and his name remains the object of criticism, not to say some ridicule in many quarters, but veteran Australian bad-boy Bernard Tomic is plotting a quiet revival.
It has been some time since he was making headlines, often for the wrong reasons, but he passed a modest professional milestone at the Mallorca Country Club on Tuesday.
And brighter days could lie ahead for the 32-year-old, who has won four ATP titles and reached a high point of No.17 on the world rankings list in 2016
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His Mallorca Open first-round defeat of fellow Australian Rinky Hijikata was his first win on the main Tour since the 2021 Australian Open — but even that was by retirement.
Tomic had not claimed a top-level victory by winning match point since July 2019.
The wait almost continued when the world No.248, a qualifier at the Iberian tournament, was just one game away from a straight-sets defeat to Hijikata.
But he fought back brilliantly to win 3-6 7-5 6-2.
Tomic will now face home hope Roberto Bautista Agut.
Having narrowly missed the cut-off for Wimbledon qualifying, Tomic decided not to hang around in the hope of a late withdrawal in London.
Instead he packed his bags and headed to the Spanish island of Mallorca, home of 22-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal, and what he hoped would be another step on the long road back.
Over the weekend he defeated Jasper De Jong, a Dutchman ranked 93 who recently won a round at the French Open, and Aleksandar Kovacevic, an American who sits at 77, to qualify for an event where the winner pockets A$250,000.
Far from the big stages of sport, Tomic has been slogging it out on the tour backwaters in lower level and Challenger events in an attempt to break back into the top 100.
It is all a distance from his colourful — and troubled — life in the limelight.
The talent was there, he was once heralded as one of Australia's most promising talents, but it was so often overshadowed by brushes with various branches of officialdom, bust-ups with spectators and accusations of tanking.
He even made a much-derided and very short-lived appearance on the TV reality show I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here in 2018.
On a darker side, there was the investigation for alleged match-fixing in 2022, though no charges were laid.
Fast forward three years and perhaps a revival stirs.
The Gold Coaster's defeat of Hijikata, who has already qualified for the main draw at Wimbledon, means he will jump to a spot just outside the top 200, which would put him in the frame to play in qualifying for the US Open in New York in late August.
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