"I'm not sure if he doesn't know what else to do" - Lleyton Hewitt questions why Bernard Tomic is still playing

Bernard Tomic was an Aussie talent who had a lot of potential in the sport. Over a decade from a Wimbledon quarter-final, and he has not hit the heights expected by many. While he still competes now, it is much further down the tennis order, leading to Lleyton Hewitt to question why he still plays.

Now ranked 182 in the world, Tomic mainly plays in Challenger events, a far cry from the Grand Slams and Masters 1000 tournaments he was a regular at. He was a highly touted youngster, winning the boy's Australian Open event at the age of 15, the youngest boys singles champion, and a year later backed that up with the US Open. He reached a career-high junior ranking of second in the world, and was one to keep an eye on for the future.

He backed this up with an immense run at SW19. He defeated the number five seed Robin Soderling enroute to a famous quarter-final as a qualifier. He came unstuck in four sets against the eventual winner Novak Djokovic, but it was very promising signs that a huge career was lying ahead of the talented star.

However, it did not work out like that. Despite reaching a career-high ranking of world number 17 in 2016, that was as good as it got. He won four titles between 2013-2018, all ATP 250 events with the last one coming in the 2018 Chengdu Open. By this time, he was in a swift decline which saw him drop way below the top 100 rankings in the world. His last Grand Slam appearance came in the 2021 Australian Open, where he was dumped out in the second round. His last title came in an ITF event last year in Chennai, India.

Hewitt and Tomic have had some past relations. Hewitt invited the young Tomic to a practice session at the 2009 Wimbledon. He was not expecting to get a reply from Tomic's agent saying 'no, he's not hitting with Lleyton; Lleyton's not good enough.' After retiring, Hewitt started to mentor his fellow countryman. It ended distastefully, with the advice not coming through to Tomic who thanked him with abuse and threats. Hewitt left his camp in 2017, as Tomic's downfall commenced.

He was questioned why the 33-year-old still plays tennis. "It's a hard one, I don't think anyone fully knows," Hewitt told reporters. "I'm not sure if he doesn't know what else to do.... or he still feels that he's got some unfinished business. You've got to take your hat off to him though, in terms of the places he's gone to and the tournaments that he's been playing the last few years, compared to where he was at – centre stage and playing the big names. He's still going out there and having a crack. It's up to him, I spoke to him a couple of times this week and he said.... yeah, I don't know what my plans are."

Hewitt is currently making a surprise return to tennis himself. He has partnered up with his son, Cruz, to compete in the New South Wales Open. They started with a brilliant 6-1, 6-0 victory Hayden Jones and Pavle Marinkov before losing in the quarter-finals stage 7-5, 6-4 to Dane Sweeney and Calum Puttergill.

Tomic has also been competing this week, like most weeks. His quest to unlock the talent which once surrounded him has not been fruitful. In a Challenger 75 event in Sydney, he went into it as the third seed but was forced to retire against qualifier Hayato Matsuoka after losing the opening set 6-4.