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MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Bernard Tomic has been offered the chance to win a wild card for January’s Australian Open in a 16-man playoff in Melbourne next month but has not said whether he will take up the place, organizers said on Friday.

FILE PHOTO: Australia's Bernard Tomic in action against France's Lucas Pouille REUTERS/Toby Melville Picture Supplied by Action Images
The 25-year-old Australian, ranked a career high 17 last year, has slumped to 143 in the world after a miserable season in which he won only 10 of 19 matches at the elite level.

His refusal to represent his country has further strained his already rocky relationship with Tennis Australia and on Friday Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt said he needed to show more commitment to the game.

“He’s had a tough year and he needs matches and he’s got to put himself out there on the line to have a crack at making the Open,” Hewitt told reporters.

“We all know the kind of tennis he can play but he has to get back to that level and he also needs to commit to the sport as well and we won’t be making any more wild card decisions until we see what happens in the playoffs.”

Tomic’s management said earlier this month that the former Wimbledon quarter-finalist would be entering qualifying for the year-opening Brisbane International and Australian Open.

Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis, 211th in the world after a plague of injuries over the last few years, received a wild card to the year’s first grand slam last week.

Tennis Australia has four discretionary wild cards for the men’s singles draw.

Two more go to the winners of playoffs in Melbourne and Zhuhai, while another couple are distributed under a reciprocal arrangement with the organizers of the French and U.S. Opens.

Americans Tim Smyczek and Taylor Townsend are headed Down Under to the main draws of the Australian Open after Smyczek clinched the men's AO Wild Card Challenge presented by the USTA on Thursday. Townsend clinched the women's wild card this past weekend.

The USTA and Tennis Australia have a reciprocal agreement in which wild cards into the 2017 US Open and 2018 Australian Open are exchanged. USTA Player Development awards the wild cards to the American man and woman whose ranking won't qualify them for direct entry into the main draw, based on their performances throughout a series of pro events over the last several weeks.

Smyczek defeated compatriot and world No. 85 Tennys Sandgren, 6-4, 6-4, Thursday in the quarterfinals of the $75,000 USTA Pro Circuit Challenger in Champaign, Ill., meaning there are no American men left who can catch him in the Challenge standings. Smyczek now has 109 points, a total that could grow if he continues to win in Champaign, putting him out of reach from lead challengers Sandgren and Denis Kudla.

Smyczek, ranked No. 152, earned 80 points for winning the singles title at the $75,000 USTA Pro Circuit Challenger in Charlottesville, Va., and 29 points for reaching the semifinals this week. The Challenge counts only each players' best two results over a three-week period.

Smyczek, a 29-year old Milwaukee native, has reached the second round of the Australian Open three times, including in 2015, when, late in the fifth set of an eventual second-round loss to Rafael Nadal, Smyczek allowed Nadal to take a second first serve after a fan interruption caused the Spaniard to fault. The gesture drew praise from Nadal following the match and earned international media coverage.

Lleyton Hewitt views Roger Federer as the favourite to win the 2018 Australian Open, despite the returns of the likes of Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic in Melbourne.

The Swiss ended the season as world No. 2, having split the four Grand Slams with top-ranked Rafael Nadal in 2017, but attention is now turning towards the large group of comeback stars next year.

Djokovic ended his season early with an elbow problem, while Murray hasn’t made a competitive appearance since his quarter-final defeat to Sam Querrey at Wimbledon.
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Stan Wawrinka, Kei Nishikori and Milos Raonic – all of whom ended 2016 in the top-five – are also on the road to recovery, with seedings set to be all over the shop heading into the first Grand Slam of the season.

But despite the potential early heavyweight clashes and unpredictable nature of the draw in Australia, Hewitt has tipped last year’s winner to be the man to beat when play begins.

‘Coming in a lot of the top guys from the previous years are going to be seeded a lot lower because they haven’t played really for the last six months so there’s going to be a question mark on how they come in and how their bodies are holding up,’ Hewitt said.
Federer tipped to win Australian Open 2018 ahead of Djokovic, Murray & Nadal
Murray is on the comeback trail (Picture: PA)
Federer tipped to win Australian Open 2018 ahead of Djokovic, Murray & Nadal
Nadal was beaten by Federer in the Australian Open 2017 final (Picture: AFP/Getty)

‘Federer is going to go in as favourite as age 36 but there’s going to some opportunities for some young guys to stand up and maybe win a Grand Slam.’

Hewitt also encouraged Bernard Tomic to fight for a wildcard for the event after a disastrous year saw the 25-year-old drop to world No. 143.

The tennis bad boy has been invited to compete in a 16-man field for the wildcard play-off in December and the Australian Davis Cup captain hopes to see Tomic pushing hard to earn his place in the main draw.
Federer tipped to win Australian Open 2018 ahead of Djokovic, Murray & Nadal
Tomic has come under fire (Picture: AFP/Getty)
Federer tipped to win Australian Open 2018 ahead of Djokovic, Murray & Nadal
Hewitt wants Tomic to earn his place at the Australian Open (Picture: Getty)

‘He’s had a tough year and he needs matches and he’s got to put himself out there on the line to have a crack at making the Open,’ Hewitt added.

‘We all know the kind of tennis he can play but he has to get back to that level and he also needs to commit to the sport as well and we won’t be making any more wildcard decisions until we see what happens in the play-offs.’

Bernard Tomic will have to fight for an Australian Open wildcard, with Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt saying he needs to see more from the controversial player. Injury-plagued Thanasi Kokkinakis was this week awarded a discretionary wildcard but Tomic will not be given the same guaranteed start.

Plummeting to 143 from a career high world No17 in 2016, Tomic has been invited to compete in a 16-man field in the wildcard playoff in Melbourne in December, although is yet to accept the invitation.


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Hewitt said Tomic was unsure of his plans for the summer when he spoke to him a few weeks ago, although his management said he would enter into qualifying for Brisbane and the Open.

“He’s had a tough year and he needs matches and he’s got to put himself out there on the line to have a crack at making the Open,” said Hewitt. “We all know the kind of tennis he can play but he has to get back to that level and he also needs to commit to the sport as well and we won’t be making any more wildcard decisions until we see what happens in the playoffs.”

Hewitt said Tomic playing a Challenger event, which was a second round loss in Slovakia, in his last tournament of the year was a step in the right direction for the 25-year-old.

Tomic has progressed to the fourth round three times at Melbourne Park and suffered a third-round loss this year. Should he fail to win the playoff event, Tennis Australia still has four other remaining wildcards.

Hewitt said the Australian Open men’s title was wide open, with some of the regular contenders such as veterans Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray sidelined for much of the year through injury. He said he’d been impressed by Australia’s No1 Nick Kyrgios through the Davis Cup campaign and felt he had matured.

“Coming in a lot of the top guys from the previous years are going to be seeded a lot lower because they haven’t played really for the last six months so there’s going to be a question mark on how they come in and how their bodies are holding up,” Hewitt said.

“[Roger] Federer is going to go in as favourite as age 36 but there’s going to some opportunities for some young guys to stand up and maybe win a grand slam.”

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