Bernard Tomic bows out at Queen's as father watches on
Tennis authorities gave John Tomic a worldwide ban from watching his son's matches in person after he was charged by Spanish police for allegedly assaulting his son's French hitting partner, Thomas Drouet, during the Madrid Masters earlier this year.
- Agence France-Presse
- Updated: June 12, 2013 08:36 am IST
Bernard Tomic suffered a first-round exit at Queen's Club on Tuesday as the Australian was beaten 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/4) by Germany's Benjamin Becker in front of his controversial father.
Tennis authorities gave John Tomic a worldwide ban from watching his son's matches in person after he was charged by Spanish police for allegedly assaulting his son's French hitting partner, Thomas Drouet, during the Madrid Masters earlier this year.
Drouet suffered a broken nose and back injuries after being allegedly headbutted and Tomic senior is due in a Madrid court in October in relation to the assault allegations.
Tomic's father was told to stay away from the recent French Open and security guards were issued instructions to bar him from entering.
But, although Queen's chiefs upheld the ATP ban, they agreed to let him pay for a spectator ticket for his son's first round match on the proviso that he agreed to behave himself.
There were no controversial antics from Tomic senior but, perhaps distracted by the fuss surrounding his father, the 20-year-old dropped his serve in the opening game of the match and was unable to rescue the set.
He was much more focused in the second set and held his nerve in the tie-break to level the match.
Tomic surrendered a break in the second game of the deciding set.
But Becker, ranked 105, couldn't hold on to his advantage and Tomic was able to force a tie-break.
Instead of making the most of that escape, Tomic was on the back foot from the start of the breaker and Becker was finally able to close out the win.
Tomic's ranking has dropped to 63rd after a dismal run, which has seen him win just two of his last eight matches.
He hadn't been past the second round of any tournament since reaching the quarter-finals in Marseille in February and this was dispiriting preparation for Wimbledon, which begins in less than two weeks.
Play was severely disrupted by rain for most of the day and Australia's Lleyton Hewitt had his second round clash with Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov postponed until Wednesday.
Sam Querrey, a surprise winner of Queen's in 2010, collected his 200th ATP Tour win as he defeated Aljaz Bendene 7-6 (13/11), 5-7, 7-6 (7/5) in his second round tie to set up a last 16 meeting with Hewitt or Dimitrov.
France's Nicolas Mahut, a former Queen's runner-up, crushed American Rhyne Williams 6-3, 6-2 to earn a second round rematch with top seed Andy Murray.
Mahut, playing his first match since a tearful defeat in the French Open doubles final last week, sprang a surprise when he knocked out Murray at the same stage at Queen's last year.
That loss acted as something of a jolt to Murray, who went on to win the US Open and the Olympic gold medal, as well as reaching the Wimbledon final for the first time, and is now second in the world rankings.
"To play Andy here at Queen's is not a good draw, but last year I played amazing and I won the match," Mahut said.
"I hope this year it's going to be the same, but everyone expects him to win here, to win Wimbledon, so he has a lot of pressure on his shoulders and it will be much easier for me to play.
"There's no secret to playing Andy. I just have to play my best. Of course it's better for me to play him here in the first round than in Wimbledon in two weeks."