Australian tennis star Bernard Tomic’s reputation took another hit after he told a US Open heckler to “suck my balls.”
Tomic’s foul-mouthed rant was picked up by court-side microphones during his first-round loss Tuesday to unseeded Bosnian Damir Dzumhur 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (0).
While Dzumhur served in the first set, Tomic took pauses between points to fire verbal volleys at the heckler, telling the spectator, “I will put my balls in your mouth” and “I will give you some money to make you feel good.”
The heated exchange between Tomic and the fan got so bad that French umpire Cedric Mourier asked the Aussie about it between games and advised the player to go through official channels instead of confronting the heckler on his own.
“He was saying some s–t,” Tomic explained to Mourier. The umpire responded, “It’s better you go through me than try to solve it by yourself.”
After the match, Tomic explained that he snapped because the heckler was jeering him in his mother tongue — Tomic was born in Germany to a Croatian father and Bosnian mother.
“He was just baiting me a bit. You know, I don’t want to get into it. I apologized for what I said to him,” Tomic told reporters, according to ABC.net.au.
“After he left the first set, I think the crowd got happy he left because he was a bit annoying.”
Tomic’s manager, David Drysdale, further explained, “The guy was at him all the way through the first set, calling Bernie a p—y and telling Bernie to go and have a cry with his little p—y girlfriend.”
This isn’t the first time that Tomic has gotten in trouble for either his foul mouth or his interactions with spectators.
While playing at Wimbledon in 2011, Tomic approached the chair umpire and requested that his own father be ejected from the match.
“He’s annoying. I know he’s my father, but he’s annoying me. I want him to leave, but how’s that possible?” Tomic asked the ref, according to the Daily Mail.
Tomic’s tongue also got him in trouble at Wimbledon earlier this year when he said in a post-match press conference, “unfortunately I had to stand on court like a retard” while waiting for his opponent.