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The Australian said he felt bored during his lousy display in his Wimbledon first-round defeat and he says his loss to Mischa Zverev was purely mental and down to his disillusionment with tennis.

Let us be honest, he was awful in his quickfire straight-sets exit, and may yet be docked some if not all of his £35,000 reward from the All England Club.

And you can understand the former greats who formed an orderly queue to kick Tomic to the kerb – he disrespected their sport and its paying customers, after all.

How many players, who dedicated themselves and their lives completely for that one day in the sun in south-west London, would have given their eye teeth to have the ability he clearly possessed? Actually, how many non-players would want to be half as good as Tomic? To be lucky enough to travel the world, do a few hours’ work every couple of days and be rewarded handsomely? Does he have no comprehension of the good fortune he had to be able to play tennis?

To him, his on-court exploits are just business and he is seeing out the tournaments in order to kick back without having to work for the rest of his life.

The truth is he just does not have the mental capacity to make it to the very top and he is being brutally frank about his motivation for continuing what will now be a career defined by relative failure and unfulfilled promise.

So much talent as a young player, his life spent in the game means he now seems burned out at just 24, unlikely to ever get near the 17th world ranking he once peaked at. All he has done is admitted the inconvenient truth, that players are out to make what they can while they can.

He at least managed to hold his attention span long enough to make the bitter end. Several of his peers have also come under fire from paying punters, for turning out and trying to get through matches with injury that in many cases, forced them to withdraw mid-match and bank their cheques.

One Sir Andrew Murray is among the walking wounded who survived their early banana skins. He has shown his typical single-mindedness in gritting his teeth while nursing his hip problem, ice baths and all.

There is a player determined to eke out every ounce of success with what nature bestowed upon him. Those feeling short-changed by the injury withdrawals after handing over their hard-earned money to see some action would be equally dischuffed had Murray allowed his injury to get the better of him, because they want to cheer on a man who has got to the very top by aligning a disciplined work ethic with his incredible talents.

That refusal to lie down and quit is what sets him, Federer, Djokovic and Nadal apart from the Tomics on the tour.

Money may be the great motivator but I imagine Tomic’s retirement will be forever tainted and he will always wonder at what could have been, had he just been bothered enough at the time.