Opinion: Tomic should take time off tennis to find some ticker

BERNARD Tomic has amassed $512,115 in prize money for winning nine tennis matches this year, but he should take six months off, Paul Malone writes.

Bernard Tomic during his first-round Wimbledon exit. Photo: Getty Images

TAKE six months off, Bernie. Heck, take a year.

That’s because you’re doing no one any good at all the way you are treating your tennis.

Go drive your car up and down the Gold Coast for a few weeks and duck into whichever nightclub takes your fancy, then spend some time deciding how much you want to commit yourself to the sport.

Bernard Tomic during his first-round loss to Germany's Mischa Zverev at Wimbledon. Photo: AFP

Bernard Tomic phoned in another straight-sets loss overnight, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 to German Mischa Zverev.

On the same hallowed grass for tennis lovers at which he was an 18-year-old quarter-finalist, the youngest man since Boris Becker to do so at Wimbledon, Tomic plainly did not care much whether he won or lost.

On live rankings, Tomic, who was once No. 17, has fallen from No. 59 to No. 69 due to his defeat.

“Holding a trophy or, you know, doing well, it doesn’t satisfy me anymore,’’ Tomic told reporters.

Let’s stop right there. Tomic has won three ATP titles and none since 2015 — we aren’t talking Jimmy Connors or Rafael Nadal here.

He continued: “I couldn’t care less if I make a fourth-round US Open or I lose first round. To me, everything is the same. You know, I’m going to play another 10 years, and I know after my career I won’t have to work again.’’

You can see his point there, at least. That’s now nine wins and 15 losses for 2017.

First-round losers at Wimbledon get 35,000 pounds ($A59,600). Tomic’s prizemoney for such a rancid season is now $512,115.

The first-round loser’s cheque is up 17 per cent on 2016, although anyone who watched some of the forlorn losses and half-baked injury retirements at the All-England Club would scarcely see it as deserved.

Joe Sixpack in Australia, more keen on footy anyway, would see such riches as being reward for little or no effort.

Bernard Tomic. Photo: AFP

To borrow a line from Andre Agassi in the 1990s when Yevgeny Kafelnikov was complaining that prizemoney should be higher, Tomic should go and buy some perspective.

If Tomic is going to play the rest of his schedule this year, the bad news is that the really hard work is about to start.

The American hardcourt circuit can provide some of the most punishing tennis of the year, with sapping humidity.

On Fox Sports commentary, Roger Rasheed, the former coach of Lleyton Hewitt and Gael Monfils, made the point that sometimes players needed to have tennis taken away from them for a while by an injury to realise how much they want to be a tennis player.

Would a long break get Tomic back on the rails?

Or would it take a long enough series of poor results which brought his ranking down — and then his income — because he could not, for example, pick up more than $200,000 just by playing the four majors?

Bernard Tomic. Photo: AFP

Both Tomic and Nick Kyrgios often through the year pipe up about how the European grass swing is their prime time of the year. It’s over for another 12 months.

Tomic will be 25 and three months when the Australian circuit starts.

There’s a risk now that Tomic will not be a direct entry for January’s Brisbane International, which had a ranking cut-off for main draw of No. 79 last summer.

Tomic had done his best to burn his bridges with Tennis Australia, declaring himself unavailable for Davis Cup despite numerous wildcards and vast investment in his tennis by TA.

Should he need a wildcard for the Brisbane International, there’s a case to be made that he would add interest.

Social media and internet forums tell us that plenty of Australians want to watch what happens next to Tomic and Kyrgios so they can be part of the ongoing conversation.