TA president hoping to ‘clear the air’ with Tomic
Tennis Australia (TA) says 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 semi-final.
President Steve Healy said on Tuesday that TA was concerned for 22-year-old 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 quarter-final tie against Kazakhstan, from which Tomic was suspended after unleashing a verbal tirade against TA following his Wimbledon exit.
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“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.
“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 currently in the Colombian capital of Bogota preparing to defend his Claro Open ATP title, which Healy conceded would make a face-to-face meeting difficult.
“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 added.
“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, who along with TA chief executive Craig Tiley texted Tomic after the win over Kazakhstan, has said he is confident of having Tomic back in his team for the away semi-final clash with Great Britain.
Healy said he and TA waited until after the quarter-final to allow those playing in Darwin to put in their best performance without any distractions.
But the 3-2 victory came after the two youngest and most promising members of the team, Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios, lost their opening singles ties.
Kyrgios was criticised for looking disinterested before and during his match and was replaced by Lleyton Hewitt for the reverse singles on Sunday.
But Healy said Kyrgios is “an incredible talent” who needs time to mature.
“I think it’s really telling what players like Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray have said – the guy’s a phenomenal talent and he’s growing up in the spotlight,” he said.
“Fame and fortune’s come pretty quickly and we just need to give him a bit of time. He’s an incredible talent, great for Australian tennis.
Hewitt was appointed Davis Cup captain too hastily: Healy
Hewitt was originally set to take over from Masur as Davis Cup captain after he retires from playing, but TA now says the position will be opened up to other candidates after criticism from former players.
In January, Hewitt announced he would retire after the 2016 Australian Open to take up the role, but Healy says after a discussion with former player Pat Cash earlier this year, it was decided to open up the application process.
“We had to make a pretty quick decision and put something in place, and looking back at that, we’ve said we think there should be a process,” he said.
“The comments that have been made by Pat Cash and others are fair enough, and we want to give everyone a chance.”
Cash, the 1987 Wimbledon champion, was a critical of the appointment of Masur when it happened.
“Happy for my old mate Wally Masur, but can someone at #tennisaustralia please explain the procedure for the Aus DC captain nomination?” he wrote on Twitter.
“Yet again it appears there was no application process, no transparency, no player discussion, no outsiders, just the secret hand shake.”
And former doubles star Paul McNamee suggested he would be happy to throw his hat in the ring, tweeting: “Yes @TheRealPatCash nothing against Wally who’s board member of Tennis Australia but you and a few of us would have liked to put our hand up.”