Bernard Tomic plays Australian Open qualifier while ‘sure’ he has COVID
On just the second day of qualifying matches, the Australian Open somehow produced a moment nearly as surreal as Novak Djokovic’s ongoing immigration saga.
On his way to getting smoked in straight sets, longtime clown Bernard Tomic came up with a novel excuse for his poor play: He was currently infected with the novel coronavirus.
“I’m sure, in the next two days, I’ll test positive,” he said to the umpire during the changeover. “I’m telling you. I will buy you dinner if I don’t test positive in three days.”
While it may seem wildly irresponsible to play a tennis match while completely convinced you have symptomatic COVID, Tomic seemed to make some reasonable points about the tournament’s cavalier handling of the virus. “I cannot believe nobody’s getting tested,” he said. “They’re allowing players to come on the court with rapid tests in their room. Come on. No official PCR testing.”
The Australian lost 6-1, 6-4 to Roman Safiullin and returned the Russian’s fist bump after the loss.
