One of the more interesting stories from an Australian perspective in the 2026 season has been the success of Bernard Tomic of Gold Coast in challenger events. Tomic has had a controversial past, reportedly had a poor relationship with Australian tennis superstar Lleyton Hewitt, and was investigated for alleged match fixing in 2021 and 2022 (investigation closed due to lack of evidence).
In Tomic’s prime, he was ranked as high as 17th in the world (in 2016). But in the last decade, we have seen Tomic plummet in the world rankings, and he is currently 179th in the world.
Historically, Tomic has had a bad boy image, and it is frequent for him to have bizarre outbursts on the court. Recently, Tomic’s relationship with Australian social influencer Keely Hannah have made headlines, and Hannah gave birth to a daughter this year according to Jo Aujla of The Sun.
We have not seen much of Tomic on the ATP Tour in 2026. However, he did come away with two impressive wins in Los Cabos, Mexico for his only two ATP main draw victories in 2026. The first win was a dominant 6-1, 6-0 victory over Alex Hernandez of Mexico in the first round. Tomic’s second win was an impressive upset, as he defeated three-time grand slam semifinalist Karen Khachanov of Russia 6-2, 6-4 in the second round.
On the challenger circuit we have seen the most from Tomic. He has made the quarterfinals of New Caledonia; Metepec, Mexico; Little Rock, Arkansas; and the final of Lincoln, Nebraska. This week in Guangzhou, China, Tomic made the quarterfinals again.
Tomic has not won a challenger event this year, but his game is developing into form. It will be interesting to see if he will play regularly on the ATP Tour in 2027.
