Bernard Tomic's attempt to return to the Grand Slam circuit has seen him smashed off the court in an embarrassing straight-sets loss at Melbourne's Kia Arena on Tuesday. The former world No.17 needed to win three straight sudden-death matches to qualify for the Australian Open but fell at the first hurdle, going down 6-3, 6-1 to Slovakia's Jozef Kovalik, who is ranked 128 in the world.
![[The polarising Aussie was wiped off the court in just 61 minutes as he fell to a straight-sets loss to Slovakia's Jozef Kovalik]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/07/03/93811697-14257521-image-a-62_1736219840977.jpg)
Tomic's heavy defeat comes after he also endured a horror loss when he contested his first tournament final for six years, going down 6-0, 6-1 in just 39 minutes to America's Learner Tien in the Fairfield Challenger in San Francisco last October. That loss set a world record for the fastest defeat in an Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Challenger Event.
![[The news wasn't any better for Cruz Hewitt (pictured), who also went out in straight sets - but unlike Tomic, the 16-year-old will have many more chances to play his home Grand Slam]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/07/03/93811705-14257521-image-a-63_1736219882208.jpg)
Tomic - who is currently ranked 214th in the world - last played in his home Grand Slam in 2021 and has never made it further than the fourth round in his 11 appearances at the tournament. Last year Tomic earned $101,170 playing in Challenger and Future events in spots such as Wichita, Little Rock and Calabasas.
![[Hewitt gave his fans plenty of reasons to expect he'll one day face the sport's biggest stars in Melbourne despite his defeat on Tuesday]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/07/03/93811707-14257521-image-a-64_1736220415610.jpg)
Tomic - once ranked 17th in the world - crashed out of the qualifiers for the Australian Open on Tuesday in embarrassing fashion. The polarising Aussie was wiped off the court in just 61 minutes as he fell to a straight-sets loss to Slovakia's Jozef Kovalik.
![[Lleyton Hewitt (left) is pictured watching his son, nearly 30 years after he qualified for his first Australian Open]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/07/03/93811709-14257521-image-a-65_1736220464862.jpg)
The news wasn't any better for Cruz Hewitt (pictured), who also went out in straight sets - but unlike Tomic, the 16-year-old will have many more chances to play his home Grand Slam. The 32-year-old would have more than doubled that in one week if he'd qualifies for the Open to secure a minimum $132,000 payday for even losing in the first round.
