MELBOURNE: Bernard Tomic bowed out of the Australian Open fourth round on Sunday with a stinging rebuke of the scheduling following his straight sets defeat by Tomas Berdych.
Tomic played his last match on the second show court at Margaret Court Arena, while Rafa Nadal defeated South African Kevin Anderson at Rod Laver Arena's centre court.
Organisers have been criticised in the past for putting local players in the prime-time spots in the evening, but couldn't be accused of that on Sunday, with Nick Kyrgios playing a twilight match against Andreas Seppi on Margaret Court Arena.
Sunday's late matches feature women's third seed Simona Halep taking on Belgian Yanina Wickmayer on centre court before Andy Murray's blockbuster clash with Grigor Dimitrov.
Former Wimbledon quarter-finalist Tomic has generally enjoyed centre court treatment at his home grand slam but this year has been relegated to lesser courts.
"I spoke to a few people about it. Lleyton as well," 22-year-old Tomic told reporters, referring to Australia's two-time grand slam champion Lleyton Hewitt, who was knocked out in the second round at Rod Laver Arena.
"I think the scheduling was like ridiculous this year. Like not just from my side, but for many players. I don't know who was in charge of the schedule. Really, some of the matches I saw, it was just like, 'Wow'.
"I didn't mind (my own matches), but some of the other matches I saw I was like, 'what the hell?'"
"From what I heard in the locker room, and not just myself, like the scheduling was a bit funny.
"I'm not going to complain from my side, but on behalf of the people I talked to, they say it as well. It's not just me saying it."
When asked for comment, organisers referred to Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley's comments earlier in the week on scheduling.
"Our feedback tells us that we get it right more often than not," Tiley said.
Tomic, the youngest male to win a main draw match at the Australian Open at the age of 16, has teed off at organisers in the past over scheduling.
At the 2010 tournament when 17, Tomic lost to Marin Cilic in a second round match that finished well after midnight and slammed organisers for not taking into account his age or approving his request for a day match.
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