Bernard Tomic has been fined 100 per cent of his prize money by Wimbledon for a lack of effort in his first-round match.
The Australian, who was punished for a similar offence two years ago, has been hit with a £45,000 sanction after the All England Club ruled he “did not perform to the required professional standard” during his 58-minute defeat to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Tomic was rolling serves in and did not chase balls down as Tsonga wrapped up the quickest win in the men’s singles since 2004.
Tomic defended his performance this week and insisted he played poorly instead of without effort.
“I think I played as best as I could. It’s just I played terrible,” he said.
“I played well last week. This week, tough first round. I knew if I didn’t feel good, I’d lose this match quickly.
“We played so fast. It’s not like we’re going to have a lot of rallies out there.”
