Bernard Tomic still competes despite being ranked outside of the Top 200, and during a recent interview, he explained his motivation.
Tomic was once a very promising player. He won two Grand Slams as a junior, and the Australian also recorded some impressive wins in the first years of his tennis career.
Tomic reached his career-high ranking in January 2016 when he was ranked 17th in the world. But since then, his ranking has significantly dropped. In fact, after the 2016 season, the Australian player never finished a season inside of the Top 80 again.
Since 2020, Tomic has never finished a season inside of the Top 200, but he still continues competing. He first played on the ITF Tour, but now, Tomic has already competed at some ATP Challenger events.
Most recently, he competed in Kigali, Rwanda, where he lost in the first round of the tournament to Nicholas David Ionel. During his stay in Rwanda, Tomic spoke to Punto de Break.
He was asked about his motivation to continue competing. He now has a ranking high enough to sign up for the qualifying competitions at Grand Slams, which is something that he wants to do. At the same time, he doesn’t have any specific goals. He just wants to play.
“I’m just playing to play, you know? (laughs) It keeps me, gives me a purpose, you know? It gives me something to do. I missed a lot of tennis the last three, four years. So, I started again. It’s okay.”
“I went back to 200 or 210 playing in the Grand Slams, the Australian Open this year. So, let’s see. I’m going to try to play the French Open and Wimbledon qualifying. So, I have no real goals, just to play tennis, see how it goes.”
Although Tomic seems to be playing only for the love of the sport at the moment, he still has moments on the tennis courts when he probably doesn’t try as much as he could.
Only recently, the Australian player recorded the quickest-ever loss in an ATP Challenger final when he lost to Learner Tien in Fairfield, United States. Despite such moments, Tomic explained that playing tennis gives him a purpose in life, which is why he wants to keep on playing.
“Obviously, having a purpose, every day you wake up, it gives you something to do. Everyone needs to have a purpose. I feel like I played obviously pretty well in my career, the first five, seven years, and I didn’t play a lot of tennis after.”
“Now, I prefer not having the attention as much. A little bit of spotlight is not good. People always want to be someone and want to be famous and whatever. When you understand this and get older, you understand it’s the little things that matter, you know?”
“So, I mean, I’m enjoying being in the moment now, playing tennis. Obviously, I was in my prime when I was Top 15, Top 20, but now it’s a little bit tougher because everyone is good.”
“Everyone up to 500, 600 can be Top 100. The level is so tough. So, there’s a little chance for sure to play well to get inside the Top 100. But… I mean, I’m gonna try it, see how it goes the next year or two, and then, then we’re gonna see, you know?”
