IT WAS the flippant moment when Bernard Tomic, having already lost a section of the Australian sporting public, shed the wary support of still more of them.

For reasons he’s yet to explain, Tomic gave up on the last point of his match at the Madrid Masters on Wednesday.

But it was the way he did it, by holding the head of his racquet rather than the handle, and stood as an ace from Fabio Fognini sealed a third successive loss (6-2, 6-4) on the ATP Tour.

When asked last night by Gold Coast Bulletin journalist Ryan Keen about the racquet backwards incident, Tomic said: “I don’t care about that match point – would you care if you were 23 and worth over $10 million”.

Hopes that the Australian No. 2 had outgrown his “tanking’’ past had been dashed again.

Will he ever be able to tame this trait to give up in a match, which resurfaces just when his backers or just those who want to see Australian winners wonder if he’s become a consistently gritty competitor?

Tomic played the past two Davis Cup ties with some distinction for Australia after being stood down from a tie last year by TA for criticism of some of its executives.

He reached the top 20 for the first time in February and despite wrist soreness has undertaken a heavy schedule of tournaments to live up to his summer goal of making the top 10 during 2016.

There was a lot to be hopeful about, hope that he had matured.

Tomic had been 21, after all, when he took the unwanted record, which he still holds, for the fastest loss at an ATP Masters tournament, a defeat in 28 minutes by Jarkko Nieminen.

He was 20 when he was dropped from the Australian team for one Davis Cup tie because, Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley said, players were needed who “always put 100 per cent commitment and effort in competing for their country”.

He was 19 when he was accused of “tanking’’, or failing to try his best, by John McEnroe and others, in a straight-sets US Open loss to Andy Roddick.

He was just 14 when TA withdrew his funding for his European tour when TA coaches accused him of a lack of effort in a straight-sets loss at the French Open juniors.

If Tomic was disheartened by how he was about to lose his third straight match on the unfavourable European clay or how he was playing, it’s no excuse to have not tried to make Fognini win the last point.

The set score was, after all, 4-5.

Every week of the tennis season, someone, somewhere in the world wins from one or more match points down.

TA declined yesterday to make a representative available to comment on Tomic’s actions. Tomic’s management group had not responded to questions at the time of publication.

Where all this leaves Tomic’s Olympic Games chances remains to be seen. On July 4 the Australian Olympic Committee will announce its tennis representatives after nominations from TA.

Tomic said in January that he would like to play in the Rio Olympics, but was unsure about what it would do to his US Open preparation.

Australian team chef de mission Kitty Chiller said she wants only tennis players and golfers who “want to be in the team’’.

TA agreed in its contract with the AOC for the 2016 Olympics cycle to “only nominate athletes of good standing’’, a clause which by no means every national sporting body has with the AOC.