Bernard Tomic will have to fight for an Australian Open wildcard, with Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt saying he needs to see more from the tennis bad boy.
Injury-plagued Thanasi Kokkinakis was this week awarded a discretionary wildcard but Tomic won't be given the same guaranteed start.
Plummeting to 143 from a career high world No.17 in 2016, Tomic has been invited to compete in a 16-man field in the wildcard playoff in Melbourne in December, although is yet to accept the invitation.
Hewitt said Tomic was unsure of his plans for the summer when he spoke to him a few weeks ago, although his management said would enter into qualifying for Brisbane and the Open.
"He's had a tough year and he needs matches and he's got to put himself out there on the line to have a crack at making the Open," said Hewitt, , speaking at the launch of Smash MND, which is a pre-Open Jimmy Barnes concert to raise money for Motor Neurone Disease.
"We all know the kind of tennis he can play but he has to get back to that level and he also needs to commit to the sport as well and we won't be making any more wildcard decisions until we see what happens in the playoffs."
Hewitt said Tomic playing a Challenger event, which was a second round loss in Slovakia, in his last tournament of the year was a step in the right direction for the 25-year-old.
Tomic has progressed to the fourth round three times at Melbourne Park and suffered a third-round loss this year.
Should he fail to win the playoff event, Tennis Australia still has four other remaining wildcards.
Hewitt said the Australian Open men's title was wide open, with some of the regular contenders such as veterans Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray sidelined for much of the year through injury.
Hewitt said he'd been impressed by Australia's No.1 Nick Kyrgios through the Davis Cup campaign and felt he'd matured.
"Coming in a lot of the top guys from the previous years are going to be seeded a lot lower because they haven't played really for the last six months so there's going to be a question mark on how they come in and how their bodies are holding up," Hewitt said.
"(Roger) Federer is going to go in as favourite as age 36 but there's going to some opportunities for some young guys to stand up and maybe win a grand slam."
