BERNIE’S OLIVE BRANCH
TENNIS Australia claims it will reach out to Bernard Tomic in the next week or so to “clear the air” and hopes to have him back on- side for September’s Davis Cup semifinal.
President Steve Healy said TA is concerned for 22- yearold Tomic, following his arrest in Miami for failing to follow police orders to quieten down his penthouse party.
It came on the eve of Australia’s Davis Cup World Group quarter- final tie against Kazakhstan, from which Tomic was suspended after a verbal tirade against TA after his Wimbledon exit.
“We want to offer Bernard the opportunity to raise the issues he has raised, so we can address those with him,” Healy said at opening of the new Tennis ACT Centre in Canberra yesterday.
“We think the criticisms are unjustified – he needs to hear that. He needs to get some detail, and we want to bring him back into the fold.
“I think the important thing to understand is he’s had fantastic support from Tennis Australia and we want him to understand and appreciate that and then welcome him back into Davis Cup.”
Tomic is in the Colombian capital Bogota to defend his Claro Open ATP title, which Healy said would make a face- to- face meeting hard.
“But we want to take those issues off the table,” he said.
Healy said he hoped to resolve the issues quickly, but said it was mostly out of TA’s hands.
“To a large extent, it depends on how Bernard reacts,” he said.
“We want to get Bernard and we want to have a chat to clear the air with those issues and get him back hopefully for the semi- final if possible.”
Davis Cup captain Wally Masur said on Sunday he was confident of having Tomic back in his team for the away semi- final against Great Britain – winners over France.