Throughout his vexing young career, Bernard Tomic's actions have spoken louder than words.
The onetime prodigy has never demonstrated the requisite commitment to turn himself into the player he once seemed capable of being. For the most part, he's sulked, acted either petulant or indifferent, and actively tanked matches. In one particularly egregious display last May in Madrid, he set up to return a serve, while facing match point, holding his racket upside down.
So his desultory performance in his first-round Wimbledon match against Mischa Zverev - in which he looked physically and mentally checked out and lost 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 - was not unusual. But the 24-year-old Aussie was more candid than ordinary in his post-match presser.
"I wasn't mentally and physically there," Tomic told reporters. "I felt a little bit bored, to be completely honest with you. I tried, at the end ... but it was too late."
Wimbledon has been arguably Tomic's most successful major tournament. It's the only Slam at which he's made a quarterfinal (back in 2011), and he made the Round of 16 there a year ago. But the prospect of on-court results no longer seem to motivate him (if they ever did).
"It's tough, you know. I'm 24. I came on tour at 16, 17. I have been around and feels like I'm super old, but I'm not," Tomic said, according to The Guardian. "I'm still 24, and it was tough to find motivation out there."
Tomic, who has been ranked as high as 17th in the world, has been quite frank about the pragmatism that guides his tennis career these days. After taking flak for that infamous racket-handle match-point return, he said, "I don't care about that match point. Would you care if you were 23 and worth over $10 million?"
Earlier this year, he explained: "Tennis was so fun back in the day; at a young age you want to play for the joy, the competition. Now it's a big business, and there's just a lot of coin involved, a lot of money around, so it becomes different. ... My job is to play tennis until I'm done, I've had enough, and until I've made enough money."
Tomic echoed that sentiment after his loss to Zverev.
"I'm happy with my life," he said. "It’s my choice. I know I have to work hard. For sure I don't do the right work. But I feel holding a trophy or doing well doesn't satisfy me anymore. It's not there. 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."
Asked whether he feels any desire to put in the work necessary to improve, Tomic was noncommittal.
"Sometimes I do; sometimes I don't," he said. "I'm just speaking honest truth about it. When I was 19 and 20, and No. 20 or 25 in the world, I was enjoying it. But now it's a roller coaster, and I just can't seem to find the commitment to work hard, to enjoy, and to lift trophies. Maybe I have to look at a few things and maybe play less tournaments."
