‘Bored’ Bernard Tomic fined $15,000 after first-round Wimbledon exit

Bernard Tomic’s boredom at Wimbledon cost him a hefty fine and a sponsor. The 24-year old tennis player from Australia faced Mischa Zverev on Tuesday and lost. During the match, he called on his trainer even though he was not injured.

Tomic admitted that he called a medical timeout in order to interrupt Zverev’s momentum. At the press conference, he revealed a lack of enthusiasm for competing in Wimbledon:

“It’s tough to find motivation. You know, being out there playing my eighth Wimbledon already and I’m 24-years old. I’m still very young. I just feel a little bit — I’m bored out there. And I just gotta find a sort of a way to get back and enjoy tennis again. People think it’s an amazing life. We are making millions of dollars and, you know, it’s sometimes tough mentally to compete and put yourself out there day in day out. i’m not the best character to do that.”

Because he called on his trainer even though he didn’t have an injury , the international Tennis Federation fined Tomic $15,000. Not only that, but racket company Head dropped it’s sponsorship of Tomic after the comments. They released a statement on their website explaining why:

We were extremely disappointed with the statements made at Wimbledon by one of our sponsored athletes, Bernard Tomic. His opinions in no way reflect our own attitude for tennis, our passion, professionalism and respect for the game. Therefore, we have decided to discontinue our collaboration with Bernard Tomic.

Tomic has lost in the first round in three of the last four grand slam tournaments.