Bernard Tomic stirred controversy for himself for the umpteenth time, as he bizarrely pulled out of his first round encounter against Donald Young at the Mexican Open, in Acapulco, on Tuesday evening.
The Australian, ranked 41st in the world, lost the first set tie-breaker to the American and right before the start of the second set pulled the plug on the match, seemingly because of “unbearable heat.”
The justification for his retirement from the match, however, sounded flimsy because not only was the temperature at the venue hovering at a refreshing 27°C mark, but Tomic too had not called for the trainer or asked for a medical time-out, before stopping the match.
Tomic’s behaviour once again rakes the subject of his previous tanking attempts, including most prominently in his opener against Fabio Fognini at the 2016 Madrid Masters, where he attempted to return – while facing match point – Fognini’s serve with the racquet handle, instead of the racquet head.
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