With Wimbledon competitors wrapping up their first week of play, the concept winning the title and taking home their allotted prize money is becoming more and more of a reality.
But whether players lose in the first round or make it all the way to the finals, there’s one thing Wimbledon contenders do not go into the tournament expecting to do — paying the tournament in fines for not exuding enough effort on the court.
In the shortest men’s singles match at Wimbledon since 2004, Australian player Bernard Tomic was fined $56,100 (his total prize money) for his 58-minute-long defeat to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France.
Tomic lost the match in three harrowing sets respectively scored 6-2, 6-1 and 6-4.
Tomic was fined on the grounds of refusing to “meet the required professional standards” in a statement by Wimbledon officials, as reported by CNN:
“It is the opinion of the Referee that the performance of Bernard Tomic in his first-round match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga did not meet the required professional standards, and therefore he has been fined the maximum amount of £45,000 which will be deducted from prize money.”
Tomic has the option to appeal the decision to the director of the tournament, but based on a laissez-faire attitude in a post-game press conference in which the player simply stated that he ‘played pretty bad,’ it doesn’t seem likely that Tomic will be making any extra effort to appeal the decision anytime soon.
Tomic was also dropped by his sponsor, Head, as a result of a 2017 Wimbledon incident in which he admitted being ‘bored out there’ during a post-game press conference for a match against Mischa Zverev of Germany.
He was fined the equivalent of $15,000.
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