John Millman will limp into the grass season licking more wounds after his French Open near-miss against Alexander Zverev.
Revealing he had been playing the clay swing with torn ligaments in his little toe, the Australian battler said there was hardly a silver lining after falling short in his four-hour battle with the world No.5 on Tuesday.
Millman came from two sets down on his Roland Garros centre court debut to rattle the German, who threw an almighty tantrum when he lost the fourth set.
But last year’s quarter-finalist found some inner calm in an inspired final set to land a 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 2-6 6-7 (7-5) 6-3 escape.
“It’s disappointing, because I feel like there’s a lot of people in the draw I would’ve beaten,” world No.55 Millman said.
“And if you get the right draw … it’s about going a bit longer and deeper in these tournaments (not just winning in the first round).”
Millman admits he isn’t sure how his latest injury will hold up on the grass and said that he had pondered skipping the clay swing altogether.
The 29-year-old was the antithesis of countryman Bernard Tomic, who played like he had an early dinner date on the Champs-Elysees to fall in just 82 minutes to Taylor Fritz.
A nonchalant Tomic raced between points as Fritz exploited his apparent immobility, with the Australian even trying unsuccessfully to concede defeat prematurely.
Facing match point, Tomic seemed to signal to Fritz where he would direct his serve, then ran to the net to shake hands once it was hit for a clean winner.
He was forced to return to the baseline when his bemused opponent and the chair umpire insisted Tomic had faulted.
Millman has just begun his second set when Tomic was justifying his effort to media.
“Well, I didn’t play good,” he offered.
Adding that the French Open was “not for me”, Tomic said he hadn’t thrown in the towel.
“Pretty sure I did (give my best effort),” he said.
“But, you know, (the) surface is not good for me.
“It’s just my game is not built for this surface. Everything I do is not good for it.”
