Tennis star Bernard Tomic has launched an attack on Lleyton Hewitt during a press conference at the Australian Open, accusing the 37-year-old of returning to the game for financial gain.
Tomic – who was defeated by Croatian player Marin Cilic on Monday night – used his exiting press conference with the media to slam Hewitt.
“It’s all Lleyton. I’m going to say it honestly – no one likes him anymore,” he told reporters in a video published by 7 News. “He’s just doing the wrong thing. He’s playing Davis Cup. I thought he retired.
“He’s playing all these matches and stuff like this. You know what I mean? I did a little bit of work with him a couple of years ago. He used to hate Tennis Australia. It’s weird. And now he loves them. What’s happened here?”
He accused Hewitt of using Tennis Australia for other things and for a pay cheque and said other players including Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios didn’t want to play anymore because Hewitt has “ruined the system”.
“Go away, like literally, if he’s retired, why are you still in tennis?” he continued. “Why do you still play these doubles tournaments and stuff?
“Bolty, Polmans, all of these guys – they’re under his wing, so they get a percentage of that. So it’s conflicts of interest. I think it’s terrible. Isn’t that right or wrong?”
The 26-year-old said he hoped Hewitt could get moved so he could go back to having a good captain and alleged that the father-of-three didn’t put the players first.
“He always thinks of himself and it’s not good,” he said. “He’s not playing anymore. You’re not playing bro. You’re retired I thought.”
The former I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! contestant went on to say that Hewitt’s tennis and legacy speaks for itself but that he thought what he was doing now was wrong.
Tomic’s comments come days after he played a disappointing match against Kyrgios at the Kooyong Classic exhibition event. Despite being labelled a showdown between two of Australia’s biggest tennis stars, fans weren’t impressed with the clash and vented their frustration online.
Former Olympian Georgie Parker wrote on Twitter: “Watching Kyrgios v Tomic at the @KooyongClassic… it’s an absolute joke. I’m paying money to be here and the two idiots aren’t giving two shits. It’s an exhibition match but you can still bet on it… How this isn’t match fixing is beyond me. Get these two off the circuit.”
https://twitter.com/georgieparker/status/1082830273115348992