Tomic axed from Davis Cup over behaviour
Captain Pat Rafter will not consider bad boy Bernard Tomic for
Australia's opening Davis Cup tie next year due to concerns over his on
and off-court behaviour, a report said on Thursday.
Rafter took the decision two months before his side's opening match
against Taiwan in February, the Sydney Morning Herald said.
Tomic, 20, has fallen foul of Tennis Australia several times over the
past 18 months since reaching the quarter-finals of Wimbledon in 2011.
“Pat has made the decision early that for the first tie next year
Bernard will not be selected,” Craig Tiley, Tennis Australia's director
of tennis, told the newspaper.
“As a team, we just felt that part of the commitment that we make to
athletes and athletes make to the sport is they always put 100 percent
commitment and effort in competing for their country.” Rafter had been
particularly scathing of Tomic's performance in losing to Andy Roddick
in the second round of this year's US Open, describing his final set
capitulation as “disgraceful”.
US tennis great John McEnroe said Tomic, currently ranked 52nd in the
world, seemed to give up during his 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 loss to Roddick at
Flushing Meadows.
Tomic also admitted that he had given only “85 percent” in his 6-4,
6-0 defeat to German Florian Mayer at the Shanghai Masters in October,
saying the pressures of the tennis tour were taking their toll.
In the same month, he was questioned by police after a fight with a
friend on Australia's Gold Coast.
Tomic was found guilty last month of failing to stop for police on
the Gold Coast in his high-powered, bright orange sportscar and placed
on a 12-month good behaviour bond.
“We just felt that this decision should provide additional motivation
every time (Tomic) walks on the court, to be a total professional in his
approach to not only his preparation but competing in the match and
post-match,” Tiley said.
“And it would be no different if he was the number one player in
Australia or the number 100 player, or a junior.”
AFP |
