Bernard Tomic serves underarm at the Vienna Open

  • Tomic’s terrible 2017 continued with a first-round loss at the Vienna Open
  • French world No.83 Pierre-Hugues Herbert ultimately prevailed 7-6 (7-4) 7-5
  • While up 40-0 at 5-5 Tomic threw in an underarm first serve – he lost that point

Bernard Tomic’s terrible 2017 has continued with a first-round loss to French qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert at the Vienna Open.

The French world No.83 and Tomic played a match that never really hit any great heights before Herbert eventually prevailed 7-6 (7-4) 7-5.

Indicative of the 25-year-old Australian’s performances throughout the season – in which his ranking has dropped over 100 places since the start of the year – he was occasionally brilliant but more often than not erratic, serving up six double faults and just five aces.

Bernard Tomic’s terrible 2017 has continued with a first-round loss to French qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert at the Vienna Open

Tomic dropped his opening service game of the match before playing some huge forehands and drop shots full of guile to break back at 4-5 when Herbert was serving for the opening set.

Then in a bizarre moment, while up 40-0 at 5-5 Tomic threw in an underarm first serve – he lost that point quickly.

Tomic took an early mini-break in the tiebreak too before Herbert hit back to prevail 7-4.

Indicative of the Australian's performances throughout the season he was occasionally brilliant but more often than not erratic, serving up six double faults and just five aces

Indicative of the Australian’s performances throughout the season he was occasionally brilliant but more often than not erratic, serving up six double faults and just five aces

Tomic took an early lead in the second set when he broke for a 2-1 lead and appeared in control until he served for the set at 5-4 and Herbert broke back before reeling off the next two games to close out the win.

It comes after Tomic admitted he is ‘not the smartest person in the world’ after exiting the U.S. Open in the first round in August.

That came after his first round loss at Wimbledon in July, after which he said he was bored with tennis and had played at 50 percent for much of his career. 

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