Temperamental Australian player Bernard Tomic made a shocking claim midway through his opening round qualification stage match at the Australian Open.
The 29-year-old former World No 17 went down 6-1, 6-4 to Russia’s Roman Safiullin in a match that lasted 57 minutes.
ALSO READ: ‘Biggest win of his career,’ says Novak Djokovic’s mother
Tomic, who is currently ranked 257, was allegedly checking his own pulse, hinting that he may have been infected by the virus.
Later, during a changeover, he ranted to the chair umpire that the tournament organisers did not provide any official and accurate testing.
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“I’m sure in the next two days I’ll test positive, I’m telling you,” Tomic said to the umpire.
“I’ll buy you dinner if I don’t test positive in three days. Otherwise, you buy me dinner. I cannot believe nobody’s getting tested. They’re allowing players to come on the court with rapid tests in their room. Come on.
ALSO READ: Naomi Osaka pulls out of semi-finals of Melbourne WTA
“No official PCR testing.”
Video: Absolutely insane pic.twitter.com/77AzJ2BqQE
— PCB Enthusiast (@PCBFan1) January 11, 2022
Rising cases in Australia
Cases in Australia have risen rapidly over the past one month – 225,640 were record from the start of the pandemic in March 2020 till December 10. Since then the number has gone up to over 1.1 million.
On Monday, another mercurial Australian player Nick Kyrgios announced via Instagram Story that he too had tested positive, but is still hoping to recover in time to play the main draw that starts on January 17.
ALSO READ: Tennis Australia denies misleading players
Tennis Australia, and the Australian government as well, have recently come under heavy criticism due to the way in which World No 1 Novak Djokovic has been handled when the Serb arrived in Australia.
The defending champion, currently unvaccinated, had been granted medical exemption to enter the country, but was stopped by Border Security Forces and was detained for days.
On Monday, the federal court ordered he be released from detention.
