Young guy, can hit a tennis ball hard, made a splash at the Australian Open, until his second round match finished well past his supposed bed time and he lost 6-4 in the fifth set to Maran Cilic.

Australian tennis couldn't get enough of Tomic at that particular stage and having seemingly mended fences with the Australian tennis establishment and in particular, Lleyton Hewitt, all appeared rosy.

With the official sanction of Tennis Australia, he was officially the next big thing, and he followed up from the Open with a win at the Burnie Challenger the week afterwards and then a few weeks later, two wins on debut for Australia in the Davis Cup tie against Chinese Tapei. In the live rubber on the first day, he yielded just four games to Tsung-Hua Yang, and he won the dead rubber on the final day quite handily as well.

But fast forward a couple of months and Tomic's tennis seems to have gone nowhere fast. He has yet to get past the second round of any of the Futures, Challengers and Tour events he has entered.

Perhaps clay is not his best surface and that being the case, he would hardly be the first Australian player to struggle with the coarse stuff under his feet.

But he is the rising star of Australian tennis, which is why his absence from two key events in recent weeks raises questions about whether tension between the Tomic camp and Tennis Australia has surfaced again.

The first was the recent Davis Cup tie against Japan, in which Peter Luczak, Carsten Ball and Paul Hanley were all named in the team ahead of Tomic. Lleyton Hewitt, of course, spearheaded the team.

No question marks over Hanley, given that there should always be at least one doubles specialist in the squad. Big-serving Ball is coming good and probably deserves a show of faith from the selectors, but we're not sure Luczak deserved the nod over Tomic. As many in the Twitterverse observed at the time and borrowing a footy analogy, he is a list-clogger, someone who is keeping a spot on the list from a younger player more deserving.

Then there's the French Open where again, Tomic is a notable absentee. There is a reciprocal arrangement between Tennis Australia and its French counterpart by which one wildcard is handed in each of the men's and women's singles draws to players from the other country at their Grand Slam events. It helps get French players into the Australian Open and vice-versa.

This year, Tennis Australia gave its French Open wildcard to Ball.

Ball is something of a late bloomer and admittedly, was good for Australia in the Davis Cup tie against Japan. But he's 22 and with a ranking of 133, would have seeded for the qualifying event and given his form, a reasonably chance to get through.

Tomic is ranked at 234, not even enough to get into qualifying for the French Open, but based on past performances and future potential, would appear to have had a sound case to be awarded the Tennis Australia wildcard.

The Tomic camp has been quiet of late, perhaps having learned that it will never win the war of words with the Australian tennis establishment.

But it would have been great to hear a bit more from Craig Tiley, the head of player development at Tennis Australia about why the snub of Tomic, both for Davis Cup and the French Open.

It would appear the message to Tomic has been sent loud and clear. And it goes along the lines of: "Son, you're on your own."