Troubled tennis star Bernard Tomic quits I’m A Celebrity jungle after just three nights

A period of personal reflection in a South African jungle has convinced Australian tennis player Bernard Tomic that he is ready to return to the court.

Tomic quit the reality television show I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! after only three days, saying that was long enough to reflect and realise “how I played last year and where I should be”.

He said his short time in the jungle was his first break from his “fast-paced” lifestyle and gave him “a wake-up call”.

“After being there for a couple days, it made me depressed and it made me a bit sad and I didn’t want to continue doing that to myself,” Tomic told News Corp Australia. “I need to get back on the court.

“I just started recently to get back and feeling good. I won a couple of matches at the Australian Open in the [qualifiers]. I just regret leaving that last month-and-a-half behind. It wasn’t the right thing for me to do.”

But Tomic’s comeback may depend on his ability to repair his relationship with Tennis Australia and national Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt.

Hewitt has indicated Tomic’s Davis Cup career may be at an end after he rebuffed several attempts to draw him back into the fold and said in an interview that Australia could not win the Davis Cup without him. Asked if Tomic would play for Australia again, Hewitt said “it’s highly doubtful”.

“He’s made some mistakes. It will be a long way back,” Hewitt said. “He’s digging a big hole for himself that he may never get out of.”