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Down to world No. 226, Bernard Tomic has signalled his plans to continue his tennis career by making a competition return for the first time since March.

Bernard Tomic has found it tough going in his return to competition tennis after capturing more recent headlines for his exploits off the court than on it.

The one-time world No.17 is making his first tournament appearance since March, when he was eliminated from the ATP Challenger Tour event in Mexico in the round of 16 by fellow Aussie Aleksandar Vukic.

He fell ill soon after that and self-isolated in Miami, convinced he had coronavirus.

Playing in a low-key UTR Pro round-robin tournament in Brisbane, Tomic, currently 226th in the ATP rankings, has opened with a win and a loss.

The top seed notched an easy 6-3 6-0 victory over compatriot Maverick Banes in his first match but was pipped in his second against fourth-ranked Thomas Fancutt.

Tomic, 28, started brightly to cruise through the first set but Fancutt eventually prevailed 1-6 7-6 (7-4) 10-8.

After a quiet six months Tomic was back in the spotlight last week after making public his relationship with reality television star Vanessa Sierra.

The former Davis Cup star made his debut on adult website OnlyFans with Sierra.