MELBOURNE (Reuters) – An ailing Bernard Tomic instructed the chair umpire during his Australian Open qualifying match on Tuesday that he would take a look at positive for COVID-19 inside days and later posted on social media that he had been instructed to isolate.
The mercurial Australian had his Melbourne Park hopes dashed after a 6-1 6-4 defeat by Russia’s Roman Safiullin.
Down 2-1 in the second set, Tomic instructed Brazilian chair umpire Aline Da Rocha Nocinto during the changeover that he was struggling bodily earlier than happening to criticise COVID-19 testing protocols forward of the Jan. 17-30 Grand Slam.
“For positive in the following two days I’ll take a look at positive, I’m telling you,” Tomic instructed the official.
“I’ll purchase you dinner if I do not take a look at positive in three days. Otherwise you purchase me dinner.
“I can not imagine no person is getting examined. They’re permitting gamers to return onto the courtroom with fast checks in their room … come on. No official PCR testing.”
The 29-year-old was unavailable to talk to the media after Tuesday’s match.
“Feeling actually sick, I’m now again in my resort room,” Tomic stated in a press release on social media. “Just spoke to the medical doctors on web site and so they’ve requested me to isolate. They could not deal with me but to keep away from contact.”
Tomic was backed to turn into a Grand Slam contender during his junior years and had raised expectations in his residence nation by reaching the 2011 Wimbledon quarter-finals on the age of 18.
He reached a career-high rating of 17 in 2016 however clashes with tennis officialdom, an notorious actuality TV look and boasts about making a fortune from tennis with out making an attempt exhausting marked his decline to a present rating of 257.
(Reporting by Courtney Walsh in Melbourne; Writing by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
