Bernard Tomic's woeful run on the ATP Tour continues, with the Australian eliminated in straight sets by American wildcard Bjorn Fratangelo in the opening round of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.
The 6-2 6-2 defeat to the world No.112 means Tomic has bowed out of the first round for the fourth-successive time since his third-round exit at the Australian Open in January.
World No.42 Tomic's commitment to tennis is likely to again come under scrutiny as he went down in 62 minutes on Thursday (Friday AEDT), winning fewer than a quarter of points on his second serve.
He was broken twice in both sets as wildcard Fratangelo sent down seven aces to Tomic's one.
The American will meet 13th seed Tomas Berdych in the second round.
Tomic also suffered opening round losses at the Memphis Open and Delray Beach Open, as well as in the Brisbane International in the lead-up to Melbourne.
At the Mexican Open in Acapulco last week, he retired during his first-round match due to the heat in 27-degree temperatures,.
Ironically, he played out the Thursday's match in the Californian desert city of Indian Wells when the mercury reached 32-degrees.
All of his last four opponents have been ranked lower than him.
Tomic's next assignment will be teaming up with Spain's world No.6 Rafael Nadal in the doubles at Indian Wells.
Fellow Australian Jordan Thompson also exited in the first round after retiring against Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan with an ankle injury.
Thompson was trailing 1-6 6-1 3-0 when he retired.
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