Australian tennis player Bernard Tomic lost to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 6-2, 6-1, 6-4, on Tuesday in the first round at Wimbledon. Tsonga needed only 58 minutes to dispatch Tomic, the second shortest men’s match at the Grand Slam event since Roger Federer’s 54-minute destruction of Alejandro Falla in 2004; records such as that have only been kept since 2002.
Tsonga also served up 21 aces in just 12 services games, prompting BBC commentator John Lloyd to describe Tomic’s performance as “embarrassing” and at one point questioned why “they are bothering to open the can (of tennis balls).” The net result: Tomic has been fined his full Wimbledon prize money for not meeting the “required professional standard” during the defeat.
“All players are expected to perform to a professional standard in every Grand Slam match,” Wimbledon organizers said in a statement Thursday. “With respect to first round performance, if in the opinion of the referee the player did not perform to the required professional standard, the referee may determine that the player be subject to a fine of up to first round prize money.
“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, and therefore he has been fined the maximum amount of £45,000 – or $56,628 – which will be deducted from prize money.”
The Australian is no stranger to these situations. “Tomic the Tank Engine” was sanctioned for a similar offense in 2017 and fined almost $19,000 when he told reporters he “felt a little bit bored out there” after a straight sets defeat by Mischa Zverev. He was criticized for ruling himself out of the Rio 2016 Olympics because of an “extremely busy schedule” and in 2015 he was dropped by Tennis Australia – for a second time – from their Davis Cup team after chastising Tennis Australia’s director of player performance.
“His behavior was unacceptable,” Tennis Australia President Steve Healy said at the time.
Tomic has had off-the-court problems as well. In July 2015, he was charged with resisting arrest and trespassing in Miami Beach after refusing to leave a hotel room. His father was sentenced to eight months in prison for assaulting his son’s training partner before the 2013 Madrid Open.
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