BERNARD Tomic, one of the most talented and controversial figures in modern tennis, has entered the $150,000 Fuzion 100 Ilkley Trophy.

The 25-year-old Australian, who has been as high as 17 in the world but is now at 206, is set to play in the qualifying this weekend for the ATP Challenger event.

However, the 6ft 5in Tomic is a proven grass-court performer, having reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 2011, losing in four sets to Novak Djokovic, and the last 16 in 2013 and 2016.

In addition, he has been to the semi-finals at Queen's Club in 2016 and the quarter-finals twice (2013, 2017), as well as getting to the last eight of the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart in 2015.

At the moment, the Australian is trying to arrest a decline that started when he was world No 26 at the end of 2016, tumbling to 140 a year later.

Among his more controversial moments were losing a match in a record 28 minutes to Jarkko Nieminen at the 2014 Sony Open, playing a match point with his handle facing his opponent at the 2016 Madrid Masters, and claiming that he was bored with Wimbledon in an after-match press conference last year and had faked an injury against Mischa Zverev.

For that indiscretion, he was fined £11,500.

Tomic, who lasted only three days in the Australian version of I'm A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here earlier this year, is part of a strong Australian entry at Ilkley, with top seed Jordan Thompson, second seed James Duckworth and Jason Kubler in the main draw and Marc Polmans, 2017 runner-up Alex Bolt, John-Patrick Smith, Max Purcell and Andrew Whittington in the qualifying.

Although wild cards for both the men's and women's singles have yet to be announced, the main British hopes of joining Liam Broady in the men's main draw are Alexander Ward, Ed Corrie, Lloyd Glasspool and Jonathan Gray.

Another Briton hoping to make a mark is Leeds' Luke Johnson, who won the British Tour event last August.

Men's qualifying will be held on Saturday and Sunday (11am), with women's qualifying on Sunday and Monday.

The respective main draws start on Monday and Tuesday, with both finals on Sunday, June 24.