Resurgent Tomic: ‘I see your hate comments but it’s my fuel now’
A RESURGENT Bernard Tomic vows nothing can stop him as he seeks to salvage his tennis career in a new training video, declaring his haters are “fuel” for his comeback.
“I’ve had a lot of hate in my life. But I can’t give up. You don’t think I see the hate comments? It hurts,” he says in a new Instagram video.
As he sweats it out in the gym, doing weights, sprints and boxing drills to Fort Minor’s Remember the Name as a soundtrack, he adds: “In the past I used to let it get to me and react out of stupidity.
“But now I’m using it as fuel. I’m back. I am,” he declares, sweating bullets dressed in a hoodie and long pants aimed at making his workouts more intense.
“I’m hungry, and I’m ready. No one can stop me now. But me. I’m training, I’m sweating, I’m pushing, I’m fired up,” he says in the video.
“Whatever it takes to get back on top. Hard work pays off. I’ve put my blood sweat and tears into this sport.
“I have come back before. It’s time to set the record straight.”
It comes after he revealed to the Bulletin at the weekend that he all but checked out from the pro tennis tour for the past two years. “I just didn’t know where I was at.”
He admitted regretting a lot of things he’d said and done in the past, including fobbing off media after an Australian Open qualifying loss, saying he was off to “count my millions”.
“I’m a bit older, a bit wiser. I’m not that stupid little kid anymore.”
The 29-year-old – once 17 in the world but now 254 – also admitted he’d come close to quitting the game for good but rediscovered his “fire” after surprising himself by winning through three qualifying rounds into the 2021 Australian Open main draw.
He then won a round to make the last 64, despite just a five-week build up after seven months without “touching a racquet”.
The Bulletin can also reveal he has a new fitness trainer who has an army background. He also has hitting partners lined up on the Gold Coast for training on a private court and an unofficial coaching team that includes people who helped him get ready for the 2021 Australian Open.