Tomic fires bombs with impunity
TENNIS: Thanasi Kokkinakis hinted at it. Nick Kyrgios distanced himself from it. Others in Australian tennis ignored it.
Bernard Tomic, with a background in personal and professional conflict, laid it bare.
He pointed at the elephant in the room and called it Lleyton Hewitt – a withering assessment of the Australian Davis Cup captain that was not so much surprising as considered.
Tomic is aware he is beyond the reach of Tennis Australia’s disciplinary powers given he has no interest in Davis Cup or the Olympic Games and no longer receives TA funding.
His beef with Hewitt initially stemmed from professional issues but has turned personal. Tomic was once close to Hewitt and wanted the former world No.1 to coach him.
As a Davis Cup regular, Hewitt could count on Tomic – until 2017, when the then mentally shot world No.17 wanted out.
The tipping point came 13 months ago when a wallowing Tomic rejected a Hewitt invitation to a training camp.
When then asked to contest TA’s wildcard play-off, the Queenslander was basically assured his participation would ensure a main draw slot at the 2018 Australian Open, regardless of results.
Tomic turned his back on Hewitt and the invitation, allegedly with a derogatory reference to “peasants”.
Cut adrift by Hewitt and others at TA, Tomic (pictured) was ignored for a discretionary wildcard last year.
For months, Tomic did not mutter a word, but his loss to Marin Cilic at Melbourne Park on Monday night gave way to an explosive media debriefing.
Tomic’s targeting of Hewitt is strategic. He is aware of the mutterings within the game over tensions around Hewitt and alleged player favouritism.
How TA responds, if at all, will be telling. — Leo Schlink