Australian tennis player Bernard Tomic, who was once mooted as a rising star of the sport, has been offered "health and well-being" support at a time when the career of the struggling tennis star is at the crossroads.
The 25-year-old's disastrous year, which was topped by his defeat against French qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert at the Vienna Open last week, saw him slump to the 145th in the rankings.
As a result of the forgettable season, Tomic would not have enough points to qualify directly for the first major of the season i.e Australian Open.
Tomic, who had admitted that he was "bored" and not always giving 100 percent in his recent season, is now reliant on being handed a wildcard for his home Grand Slam in January.
And the Tennis Australia has decided to offer help to Tomic, with tournament director Craig Tiley saying that the sport was doing what it could to help him, but admitted he had not responded to their offers.
"We have reached out to Bernie from a health and well-being point of view and it's up to him to respond.We have been reaching out to him ... he is in a tough place right now. His ranking has dropped and he is struggling - we have all seen it," Sport24 quoted Tomic, as saying.
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"Our job as a federation is to make sure we have a team of people there to support beyond tennis and that is where we are at. He did not detail what assistance had been offered, but said "our athlete department has a group of people that support athletes that need help," he added.
Earlier this year, Tomic had said that he had no love for the game, saying that it is just a job and he felt "trapped".