27 September 2017 | Tennis Australia

Bernard Tomic faces a reality check after suffering yet another first-round loss that will send the one-time world No.17 outside the top 150.

Tomic had planned to use the Asian swing to restore his flagging ranking to ensure he doesn’t need to enter qualifying for the Australian Open.

Instead, the former Australian Open junior champion and youngest-ever winner of a main-draw match at Melbourne Park is projected to fall to 161st in the world after a 62-minute 6-4 6-2 loss to Britain’s Kyle Edmund at the Chengdu Open on Tuesday.

Tomic is now winless since in three months, his last victory coming against German Mischa Zverev on Eastbourne grass in June.

The 24-year-old has since suffered a first-round loss to Zverev at Wimbledon and also crashed out in the first round of the US Open in New York.

The former Grand Slam quarterfinalist (Wimbledon 2011) will need to climb to around 105th in the rankings to secure direct entry to the Australian Open.

But, with few main-draw opportunities in big events to come in 2017, time is fast running out.

Another Australian, Akira Santillan, fell in the opening round of the concurrent ATP event in Shenzhen, China.

The wildcard battled hard but fell 3-6 6-2 7-6(5) to Russian Evgeny Donskoy.

Compatriot John Millman will play his first-round match in Shenzhen on Wednesday against sixth seed Damir Dzumhur.

Also in China, Ash Barty will take to the court against No.9 seed Agnieszka Radwanska on Wednesday for a shot at a quarterfinal berth in Wuhan.