Australian tennis officials want to clear the air with Bernard Tomic and reinstate the country’s estranged No. 1 into the Davis Cup team for the semi-final against Britain.
The controversial world No. 29 was booted off the team before the quarter-final win over Kazakhstan on Sunday for publicly criticizing Tennis Australia officials in an extraordinary tirade at Wimbledon.
Tomic was arrested in Miami last week after holding a noisy party at a penthouse suite in his hotel and the 22-year-old later said he was still “in a fight” with Tennis Australia and had no intention of making peace.
However, Tennis Australia president Steve Healy said the governing body hoped to contact him soon to hammer out their issues.
“We want to offer Bernard the opportunity to raise the issues he has raised, so we can address those with him,” Healy told local media in Canberra yesterday.
“We think [Tomic’s] criticisms are unjustified — he needs to hear that. He needs to get some detail, and we want to bring him back into the fold,” Healy said.
“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,” Healy said.
Tennis Australia’s high-performance head Pat Rafter announced last month that funding would be cut to Tomic and his sister Sara, who plays mostly second-tier events on the ITF circuit, in part because of their father John Tomic’s uncooperative attitude.
Bernard Tomic responded by accusing Tennis Australia of neglecting his and his sister’s development during his Wimbledon rant.
Relations plumbed a new depth last week when Tennis Australia said Tomic was playing a “Hall of Shame” event in a media release, rather than the Hall of Fame championships in Newport, Rhode Island.
The governing body quickly apologized for what it said was a “clerical error,” but the Tomic family threatened to sue.
Tomic is in Bogota preparing to defend his Claro Open title.
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