Bernard Tomic admitted to feigning injury and being bored with tennis in an extraordinary aftermath to his insipid first-round Wimbledon defeat.
Once dubbed "Tomic the Tank Engine", Australia's former All England Club quarter-finalist denied not giving his best efforts in his 6-4 6-3 6-4 loss to Germany's big-serving 27th seed Mischa Zverev.
But he confessed to having lost all motivation for the game, disrespecting it and no longer caring how he performed in grand slams.
"To me, this is one of the biggest tournaments in the world that I have done really well in my career and, yeah, I just couldn't find anything," Tomic said.
"It's happened to me a lot. Just can't find anything on the court.
"This is my eighth Wimbledon, or ninth I think. I'm still 24, and it's tough to find motivation."
Despite being heard complaining of a back problem during a medical time-out midway through the match, Tomic later said he wasn't overly injured at all.
"It was definitely a mental issue out there," he said.
"I just tried to break a bit of momentum but just couldn't find any rhythm and, you know, wasn't mentally and physically there with my mental state to perform,.
"I don't know why, but I felt a little bit bored out there, to be completely honest with you.
"So I feel holding a trophy or doing well, it doesn't satisfy me anymore.
"It's not there. I couldn't care less if I make a fourth-round US Open or I lose first round."
When asked by a journalist whether he'd consider giving his first round prize money back (NZ$62,000) because he didn't care about his performance, it was a typically defiant response from the Aussie, referring to champs Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.
"Well if you ask Federer to give back $500m, would he do that, or not?
"Well we all work for money, at 34, maybe I can donate to charity. And if you ask Roger if he'll do it, I'll do it.
"Well if Roger and Novak do, I will, no problem. Many times in my career and I'm sure you guys know that."
Reuters/Newshub.