Bernard Tomic – the incorrigible tank-engine: The psyche of a quitter.

Bernard Tomic – the incorrigible tank-engine – tanked against Alex de Minaur in the Atalanta Open quarterfinals.

He retired from the match down 6-3, 6-0 within 40 minutes, with complaints of torso pain.

Alex felt bad for Tomic but did not complain about the easy win. “It’s not ideal obviously for him, but I’ll take this any day of the week. I got here to come, play some good tennis, and ended up with the win,” said de Minaur.

Bernard Tomic – the incorrigible tank-engine – is a perennial quitter.

Bernard Tomic – the incorrigible tank-engine, is known to give up when the going gets tough. He has little regard for the time and money of the fans who come to watch his matches.

Tomic’s junior years?

To analyze why Tomic quits, we must look into the background of Bernard Tomic.

Bernard Tomic showed tremendous talent and promise as a youngster. He won a Orange Bowl, the 2009 U S Open, and 2008 Australian Open. Bernard, as a junior, was ranked as high as number 2 in the world.

Tomic was lauded as the next big thing in men’s tennis.

Many considered Tomic the next big thing in men’s tennis upon his entry into the big boys’ league. He became the youngest ever tennis player to win a match in the 2019 Men’s Australian Open event. The excessive adulation; however, did not match the results and Tomic could not make top 20 until 2015. He is yet to show a better year end ranking since December 31, 2015.

The pressure of meeting other people’s expectations hurt Tomic performance.

Tomic couldn’t live up to the high expectations of his fans, sponsors, and Australian tennis. His crazy behavior, and dissent with Australian tennis, was his way of fighting back the pressure of all the expectations that the other had from him.

The shame of not living up to his own expectations turned him into Tomic the incorrigible tank-engine.

Tomic – like his fans and admirers – probably believed that he was the next best thing in men’s tennis. He even tried to make the prediction a reality in the first few years on the men’s tour. But soon realized that the shortcomings, in his game, were too many to ignore, and the talent not as insane as he believed. Bernard, like most quitters, found it easy to hide his ineptitude and shortcomings from himself by mastering the art of tanking and quitting. It was the only way to hide the truth from himself.

The tendency and urge to quit is the strongest against a younger and inexperienced newcomer like de Minaur. How can the next big thing in men’s tennis, after all, loose to an amateur on the pro-tour?

Tomic; however, even quit, within three days, the reality television show, “I’m a Celebrity …. Get me out of here.” The shame of not living up to his own expectations turned him into Tomic – the incorrigible tank-engine.