Beaten Tomic tees off at absent Davis Cup team mate Kyrgios

MELBOURNE: Frustrated Australia number one Bernard Tomic questioned team mate Nick Kyrgios’s withdrawal from the Davis Cup tie against the United States in Melbourne after the hosts crashed out of the tournament’s first round yesterday.

Rising talent Kyrgios withdrew from the tie with a virus days before the opening singles on Friday, leaving 77th-ranked Sam Groth to battle world number 11 John Isner at Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club.

Groth was beaten easily by Isner and the big- serving American returned on Sunday to grind down 20th-ranked Tomic in four sets and put the US into the quarter-finals for the first time in three years.

During a change of ends while playing Isner, Tomic was picked up by courtside microphones complaining to team captain Lleyton Hewitt that Kyrgios had ‘ faked’ injuries twice to avoid Davis Cup ties.

“Nick’s sitting down in Canberra. It’s bullshit he’s sick,” the 23-year- old said.

World number 27 Kyrgios also missed Australia’s first round tie against Czech Republic last year with a back injury but returned to the court at Indian Wells two weeks later.

Tomic noted that Kyrgios was on the entry list for this year’s Indian Wells and told reporters he would “lose respect” for the 20-year- old if he competed there.

“He didn’t come to Czech and had stress fractures and somehow played Indian Wells and felt good,” Tomic said at the post-match media conference.

“Now it’s going to be funny for me to see whether he plays. If he plays Indian Wells, then he’s definitely lost a little bit of my respect.” — Reuters