Tomic labels Hewitt ‘liar’ as Aussies keep lobbing verbal grenades
The vicious row at the heart of Australian tennis escalated yesterday after Bernard Tomic called Lleyton Hewitt a liar for claiming Tomic threatened him.
The animosity between the pair has dominated newspapers in Melbourne all week, with Tomic claiming on Monday that “no one likes [Hewitt] any more” and alleging the former Wimbledon champion had been promoting certain players, including Australian Open wild-card Alex Bolt, and then taking a cut of their earnings.
So when Hewitt entered the interview room after a doubles defeat on Thursday night, there was plenty of subject matter to get stuck into.
“We’re trying to set cultural standards for the Davis Cup and representing Australia,” said Hewitt, “and he hasn’t been close to those in the last couple of years.
“It was probably [after] the abuse I copped from him that I drew a line in the sand, and I haven’t spoken to him since. He won’t play Davis Cup while I have anything to do with it.
“I think the threats I have received for a year-and-a-half now, I don’t think anyone will reach out to a person who speaks like that. Yes, from Bernie.”
Hewitt denied he benefited financially from any of his tennis decisions, adding that he viewed the alleged threats as “empty”, and said Tomic — a former prodigy who reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals as an 18-year-old, but has now slipped to No 88 in the world — was no longer able to contact him.
“Yeah, I don’t think he has my number hopefully any more.”
In a tit-for-tat response that has typified the week, Tomic returned serve: “I have never threatened his family,” he told the Herald Sun.
“Nice, Lleyton. To think how low of a person you actually are — [it’s] why the Australian public never liked you.
“I got nothing to do with your family and I don’t care what’s wrong with you, you liar.”
One source of the ill-feeling in Australian men’s tennis is Hewitt’s closeness to the national No 1, Alex de Minaur. Compatriot Nick Kyrgios also made a sarcastic comment about this on Wednesday, suggesting on Twitter that Hewitt did not watch anybody else’s matches.
“Right now, Nick is not meeting those [cultural standards] either,” said Hewitt. “All we ask for is to go out there and give 100 per cent every time you step on the court.”
Hewitt also criticised Kyrgios’ controversial Twitter posts, which included a furious attack this week on experienced Australian coach Roger Rasheed.
“I don’t think it’s a good look,” said Hewitt, who, at 37, is widely seen as the senior pro of Australian tennis. “I have spoken to Nick about it. He understands that. Whether he learns from it, that’s another thing.”
To return to Tomic, he has not stopped using aggressive language where Hewitt is concerned.
“I dare him to come one metre from me if he is a man,” Tomic said this week. “Two years ago, I said, ‘If he ever talks to me, I’ll knock him out’.”
Hewitt added yesterday: “I don’t know why Bernie’s Bernie. It’s probably his upbringing.”
One thing that Tomic shares with John Tomic, his father and coach, is a fondness for brushes with law enforcement. In 2013, John Tomic was found guilty of headbutting his son’s hitting partner, Thomas Drouet, breaking his nose and leaving him with a twisted vertebra.
Oddly, Tomic and Hewitt were close for a while in 2016, soon after Hewitt had announced his retirement as a singles player and taken over the Davis Cup captaincy. At Wimbledon that year, Tomic called him a mentor and said: “He’s changed me.”
Hewitt added yesterday: “For me, the most disappointing [thing] is [that] on day one, we had these great wins by a lot of our guys, and all these Bernie comments overshadowed it. It’s one clown making a silly comment and that is the main news.”