Australia’s Bernard Tomic has been stripped of his entire £45,000 (US$56,601) Wimbledon prize money for tanking his first-round match, which was over in just 58 minutes, officials said yesterday.
Tomic, who has previously been accused of not trying in his career, on Tuesday lost 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 to France’s Jo-Wifried Tsonga.
“It is the opinion of the referee that the performance of Bernard Tomic in his first-round match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga did not meet the required professional standards,” the All England Club said in a statement. “Therefore he has been fined the maximum amount of £45,000 which will be deducted from prize money.”
The best-of-five-sets match against Tsonga was the shortest at the tournament and the second-quickest overall after Elise Mertens’ 48-minute win over Fiona Ferro in the best-of-three women’s event.
“I think I played as best as I could. It’s just I played terrible,” said the world No. 96 Tomic, who was a top 20 player in 2011 when he reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon.
Since then, he has often been dubbed “Tomic the tank engine” by critical Australian media.
Asked if he was happy with the effort he was making on court at Wimbledon, he said: “Next question please.”
Tomic has run foul of the Wimbledon authorities in the past.
Two years ago, he was fined after admitting he had faked an injury and complained of being bored in defeat to Germany’s Mischa Zverev.
His racket sponsor Head dropped him as a client.
At the French Open this year, Tomic slumped to a straight-sets first-round loss to Taylor Fritz in just 88 minutes.
Tomic is not be the first player to be fined for alleged lack of effort in the past few weeks.
Anna Tatishvili of the US was stripped of her first-round prize money at Roland Garros for “not playing at a professional standard.”
She lost to Greece’s 33rd-ranked Maria Sakkari, 6-0, 6-1 in 55 minutes, only three minutes fewer than Tomic, who had played a set more.
Tatishvili had returned to competition following a 31-month absence due to a serious ankle injury and multiple surgeries.
She is appealing the ruling, claiming she is the victim of discrimination.
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