PARIS • Australian star Bernard Tomic admits he should not have made his notorious rich-boy boast, but refused to apologise for the remarks which also led to him snubbing the Olympics.

He breezed past Brian Baker, the 662nd-ranked American, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 to reach the second round of the French Open yesterday.

However, his first victory on clay this season was overshadowed by his ongoing problems.

His decision to skip the Olympics came after he was widely lambasted for his poor form over the European spring, where he had played four clay-court tournaments and lost in the first round every time.

He made headlines in Madrid when he turned his racquet the wrong way to face a match point against Fabio Fognini.

The 23-year-old later told his post-match news conference: "I don't care about that match point. Would you care if you were 23 and worth over $10 million?"

It prompted Australia's Olympic chef de mission Kitty Chiller to call his behaviour "appalling".

"I would love to say I have 10 million US dollars, but maybe 10 million Australian," said Tomic yesterday. "Yeah, I shouldn't have said that, but that's in the past. That was my fault. You got me there.

"I just said that and I was talking to my friends about some things, so it just sort of came out."

However, he added: "I don't really care - maybe if I had 100 that's different."

Tomic will face Croatia's Borna Coric next.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE