Bernard Tomic's terrible 2017 has continued with a first-round loss to French qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert at the Vienna Open.
The French world No.83 and Tomic played a match that never really hit any great heights before Herbert eventually prevailed 7-6 (7-4) 7-5.
Indicative of the 25-year-old Australians performances throughout the season - in which his ranking has dropped over 100 places since the start of the year - he was occasionally brilliant but more often than not erratic, serving up six double faults and just five aces.
Tomic dropped his opening service game of the match before playing some huge forehands and drop shots full of guile to break back at 4-5 when Herbert was serving for the opening set.
Then in a bizarre moment, while up 40-0 at 5-5 Tomic threw in an underarm first serve - he lost that point quickly.
Tomic took an early mini-break in the tiebreak too before Herbert hit back to prevail 7-4.
Tomic took an early lead in the second set when he broke for a 2-1 lead and appeared in control until he served for the set at 5-4 and Herbert broke back before reeling off the next two games to close out the win.
Top-seeded German Alexander Zverev was made to fight in his opening match but eventually overcame Serbia's Viktor Troicki 6-3 4-6 6-4, joining fellow German Phillipp Kohlschreiber in the second round after he upset American fifth seed John Isner 7-6 (8-6) 6-4.
In earlier action French veteran Gilles Simon beat Ernests Gulbis 6-3 6-3 and Richard Gasquet defeated Felicano Lopez 6-3 6-2.
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