All-business Bernie has no time to talk
BERNARD Tomic has been unusually taciturn over the past week.
Normally effusive, the Queenslander brushed media with surprising hostility while qualifying at the French Open.
Counselled to let his racquet do the talking by those close to him, and to speak to nobody outside of Camp Tomic, the once amiable baseliner has morphed into a brooding grump.
And that was well before the controversial Gold Coaster was drawn to a mouth-watering Roland Garros confrontation with Nick Kyrgios.
It seems, at long last, Tomic is putting a value on words – and, possibly, practice toil.
When news of the all-Australian clash emerged, the locker room telegraph went into meltdown over what might happen tonight between the sport’s most polarising characters.
“There’s certainly a lot of funny quotes going around,” Australia’s 1987 Wimbledon champion Pat Cash said.
“Somebody said ‘whoever tanks the best is gonna lose’, it’s a ‘tank competition’.”
Edge and Tomic have rarely appeared in the same sentence.
Sadly, for a man as gifted as Tomic, he is infamous rather than famous for verbal outbursts – not actions.
Kyrgios was the subject of a Tomic spray at Kooyong two years ago, claiming the Australian No.1 had dodged Davis Cup duty by faking illness.
“Nick’s sitting down in Canberra. Bull***t he’s sick,” Tomic moaned to Australian captain Lleyton Hewitt.
Post-match comments designed to put the comments into context were delivered with typical Tomic awkwardness and led to further damage.
The only previous time Tomic and Kyrgios lobbed in the same section of a draw, and were projected to clash in the 2016 US Open third round, Tomic imploded.
“I will put my b***s in your mouth. And I will give you some money to make you feel good,” Tomic sneered at a spectator during a first-round US Open loss to Damir Dzumhur.
Since then, Tomic and Kyrgios have gone separate ways.
Until this week, Tomic has been a bottomless source of warped – and inspired – logic.
In 2016, Tomic was offended by Roger Federer’s doubts over whether he would ever fulfil his promise.
“If he (Federer) believes I’m so far from the top 10, I believe my prediction is he’s nowhere near Novak’s (Djokovic’s) tennis right now ... when I’m playing well, I’m a top-eight player in the world,” Tomic fumed.
At Wimbledon last year, he was fined and lost sponsorship after admitting whatever enthusiasm for tennis he had previously held had evaporated.