I get it, everyone is pissed, Bernard Tomic and his follies rule the day. And the persistently halfhearted performances are disgraceful, especially when you see so many players (cue Marcus Willis) who would chop off pinkies to play Wimbledon just once.

Do we need another ex-pro/tennis analyst/blogger hammering on this guy? But yesterday’s Pressroom Confession was a cry for help, the devil-may-care monologue of a confused 25-year-old who sounds like he might have a touch of mental illness and—too often we forget—is the son of a notorious tennis father.

We know Tomic as a prodigy with an angry dad, aka Mary Pierce—she didn't last long, he won't either.

As reader Lilas Pratt put it nicely: “You can't fix what you can't identify and being honest about what is going on at least seems like a good start in the right direction.” • Sure. (Through three days, the women’s draw has actually been quite formful so far.) But to use the 2017 cut-and-paste: “Especially with Serena out of the draw, the field has never been more wide open.” Some unseeded players to watch?

Unlike the more convenient excuses other players might give for taking dubious time-outs during games, Tomic was straight up and admitted he used it as a "strategy" to disrupt Zverev.

That's cheating, yes, but it's hard to escape the notion that his fine of more than £11,000, which was the second-highest single fine in Wimbledon's history, was more about the price he had to pay for telling the truth.

___ Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at Fendrich ___ More AP tennis coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/apf-Tennis LONDON (AP) — Bernard Tomic was fined ,000 at Wimbledon and dropped by his racket sponsor Thursday — not for something he did during his first-round loss, but for what he said during a news conference afterward.

It’s a dip after that (especially since Lucie Safarova snuck in at No.

He called for the trainer at one point with a back complaint, a move he openly admitted was an effort to change the momentum of the match, but it made little difference to the outcome.

And Tomic, a junior US and Australian Open champion without a single semi-final appearance at a Grand Slam in his professional career, was the first to criticise his own preparation for the tournament and in his career generally.“I know I have to work hard.

LONDON (AP) — Bernard Tomic was fined ,000 at Wimbledon and dropped by his racket sponsor Thursday — not for something he did during his first-round loss, but for what he said during a news conference afterward.

The penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct was announced two days after the 24-year-old Australian was beaten by Mischa Zverev 6-4, 6-3, 6-4, then spoke to the media about feeling "a little bit bored out there." Tomic also said Tuesday that he "just couldn't find any motivation" to compete this year and acknowledged that when he called for a medical timeout against Zverev, he did so not because of an injury issue but to "try to break a bit of momentum." Racket maker Head issued a statement via its Twitter feed on Thursday saying: "We were extremely disappointed with the statements made at Wimbledon by one of our sponsored athletes, Bernard Tomic.