At the end of August 2022, Bernard Tomic was a 29-year-old ranked 835 in the world. From a career high of No.17 in January 2016, when he was 23, it was as low as he had been since his initial rise after he turned pro. Many thought his career was over.

The lower reaches of the ATP’s top 1000 is the type of obscurity that very few players are prepared to dig their way out of, even if they have the ability to create a second coming.

Yet, this week, Tomic returned to the top 200 for the first time since the world began to shut down for the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

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A return to the top-200 has put him back in the picture to play grand slam tennis, and a return to the Australian Open, where he has become a divisive figure, looms large.

Once considered a surefire next gen superstar of men’s tennis, he threatened to break into the top 10 in his early twenties before his off-court demons started to catch up with him.

Having turned 32 on Monday, his temperament doesn’t appear to have wavered with age, although strong 2023 and 2024 seasons have suggested he has at least worked out how to keep it under control.

Tomic will all but guarantee himself eligibility for the qualifying tournament at next year’s Australian Open, if his ranking doesn’t take another significant dive in the next two months. He hasn’t played in the main draw at Melbourne Park since 2021.

His resurgence could also put him in the frame to receive a wildcard directly into the main draw, although that would require a significant backflip on the part of Tennis Australia.

Tomic has been on a blacklist since he allegedly threatened Lleyton Hewitt and his family in emails. He’s admitted to threatening Hewitt, but denies they were extended to his family. Although long retired from playing, Hewitt remains captain of the Davis Cup team and an influential figure in Australian tennis.

Tomic’s name has unsurprisingly been left off the wildcard lists for Australian Opens since, although tournament director Craig Tiley denied Tomic’s prickly past was the reason for his rejection for 2024.

But could 2025 be different?

While the eyes of the tennis world were on Melbourne for the Australian Open, Tomic won a third-tier ITF title in India and made two more finals in Mexico and Tulsa.

He also made the final of a second-tier Challenger tournament in Fairfield, Connecticut, which drew more attention for the subsequent hammering he took in record time, with Nick Kyrgios among the hecklers for his performance with the trophy on the line.

That loss, as well as an “uncomfortable couples quarrel” in June and a bizarre heckling incident in August prove the old Tomic is still there, but perhaps his results warrant him a shot at on-court redemption.

Having once bragged about “counting his millions” after losing in the third round of Australian Open qualifying in 2018, Tomic has knuckled down for a graft that is among the hardest in world sport and there are signs that his reward could be just around the corner.

There are three broad tiers of men’s tennis – the top-ranked ATP Tour, followed by the Challenger and ITF tours. The top ATP tournaments will attract all the biggest names, crowds, and the biggest prize funds outside the slams, the ITF events are where the battlers are.

In 2024, Tomic has played tournaments in places like Mexico City, Acapulco, Chicago and even Las Vegas, but he also played in Lexington (a city of 300,000 in the US state of Kentucky) and Tiburon (a peninsular on San Francisco Bay).

He also played in Newport, a city of only 25,000 in the tiny state of Rhode Island. Although to be fair, that was a top-level ATP Tour event.

Prize money? Peanuts.

That ITF win in Chennai earned him a tick over $5,000. His biggest score of the year was for a semi-final loss in Mexico City that earned him about $11,500. His smallest pay cheque was $388 for a first-round retirement in Calabasas, just outside Los Angeles.

His year-to-date prize fund is just under $84,000. When you take into account travel costs, paying for a coach and any other medical treatment he might need, it’s a tough battle, and one he should be applauded for taking on.

Fast forward to January. Should he be forced to take the qualifying route, it wouldn’t be anything new to Tomic. That last main draw appearance in 2021 came via qualifying, where he beat Jozef Kovalík, Tristan Schoolkate and John-Patrick Smith.

But once back in the limelight, controversy soon followed. He made the second round after Yuichi Sugita retired in the third set of their first round match. In the press conference, he declared former Davis Cup captain John Fitzgerald, who in commentary had been critical of Tomic’s performance, the “worst commentator I’ve ever seen”.

He made another bold call after his second round thrashing at the hands of Canadian Denis Shapovalov. He claimed he could’ve been a top-10 player if he took his career “seriously”.

Ironically, it was at that Australian Open a then 17-year-old Carlos Alcaraz won his first grand slam main draw match, and in doing so became the youngest since Tomic himself beat Potito Starace in 2009.

It was a stark reminder of what could’ve been for Tomic. Three years older, would he be drawn into the same mistakes again?

Wildcards are usually reserved for young up-and-comers, or older players who given great service. At 32, Tomic is hardly young – in fact No.69 James Duckworth is the only Aussie in the top-500 older than Tomic – and he’s hardly an up-and-comer.

Another consideration for Tennis Australia when giving out wildcards is public appeal. Would Tomic put extra bums on seats? While the answer to that question would once have been an emphatic yes, these days he’s more pantomime villain than rough-edged star.

Either way, the somewhat underground return for the wild child of Australian tennis is gaining momentum.

Australian Open wildcards will be announced in December, and qualifying will begin on January 6.