Bernard Tomic’s unending quest to reach grand slam main draw falls short against ailing opponent at US Open

Bernard Tomic’s seemingly unending quest to fight his way back into another grand slam main draw has fallen short once again at Flushing Meadows, despite one more worthy scrap from the veteran Australian.

The last time the 33-year-old managed to battle into a main draw of a major was at his home Australian Open in 2021, but in the five years since, he’s now entered 10 more qualifying events in the slams and failed to negotiate his way through any.

Alas for the former teenage wonder boy who got to No.17 in the world a decade ago, that drought continued on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) in New York as he fought back in his first-round match against South African Lloyd Harris only to be outplayed in the final stanza.

No one can possibly fault the effort of world No.179 Tomic, who was once perceived as being a talented but undisciplined figure who didn’t really care enough about the sport, as he’s since battled on in the lower reaches of the game around the world, tirelessly seeking another day in the sun.

But Harris, a former world No.31 himself who’s still dangerous even if his ranking’s fallen to 139, just had a little too much for the Gold Coast veteran, who staged a second-set fightback before going down 6-2 5-7 6-2.

Harris needed medical treatment for a hip issue midway through the second set.

It was the same story for a host of other Australians in first-round action, as teenager Emerson Jones fought valiantly to peg back Dutch world No.164 Suzan Lamens in a tight second-set tiebreak, only to succumb 7-5 6-7 (9-7) 6-2 after two hours 25 minutes.

But there was better news for Tristan Schoolkate, a 6-3 6-2 winner over American Jack Secord, and Chris O’Connell, who triumphed 6-3 6-3 against Greek Stefanos Sakellaridis, though Alex Bolt lost 7-6 (7-3) 7-5 to Spain’s Pablo Llamas Ruiz.

Storm Hunter won the all-Aussie clash against friend Maddison Inglis, 6-3 6-0, Priscilla Hon triumphed 6-4 4-6 6-2 over Alice Tubello of France, but Astra Sharma was beaten 6-4 6-3 by South Korea’s Yeonwoo Ku.