Controversial tennis players Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic have both been overlooked for the Davis Cup finals qualifier against Bosnia and Herzegovina just days after Tomic’s extraordinary press conference attack on Lleyton Hewitt.
Hewitt’s squad for the Adelaide tie includes Australia’s leading two singles players, Alex de Minaur and John Millman, doubles specialist John Peers, as well as Jordan Thompson and young gun Alexei Popyrin.
Many tennis fans were unsurprised by the move following Tomic’s extraordinary outburst against the Aussie captain last week. Tomic publicly slammed Hewitt during his post-match press conference in Melbourne after crashing out of the Australian Open.
He accused Hewitt of using Tennis Australia for a pay cheque and said other players including Thanasi Kokkinakis and Kyrgios didn’t want to play anymore because Hewitt has “ruined the system”.
“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?”
It’s not clear whether Kyrgios didn’t want to play the Davis Cup, like Tomic said. However, he probably didn’t help matters by posting a cheeky social media post last Tuesday, sarcastically suggesting that Hewitt played favourites with Alex de Minaur, less than 24 hours after saying there was “not really” a rift between them.
After losing in the first round of the Australian Open, Kyrgios said he was available for the team, but that he expected not be picked.
“I don’t have a big deal with anything. I’ve always wanted to play Davis Cup. I love Davis Cup. If I don’t play, I don’t play. Like, I’m available. That’s all I got to say. Like, what do you want from me?” he said, reported news.com.au.
By the end of the week, Hewitt said that he had fallen out with Tomic over what he described as “blackmail threats and physical [threats]”.
From claiming Tomic has levelled a series of threats (some physical) against him and his family over the last 18 months, to alleging Tomic blackmailed him by threatening not to play the Davis Cup, Hewitt held little back in his answers to reporters. However, Tomic denied threatening Hewitt’s family.
The saga continued when Tomic’s father claimed his son was “traumatised” as a teenager by Hewitt, and that he would take legal action against the Davis Cup captain.
John Tomic told The Sydney Morning Herald in an exclusive chat on Saturday, Hewitt threatened Bernard back in 2010, and warned he would never play Davis Cup again for the country if he didn’t share details about Tennis Australia.
With the Davis Cup overhauled for 2019, Australia will feature in one of 12 qualifying ties hoping to join defending champions Croatia, France, Spain, Great Britain, US and Argentina in the 18-team finals in Spain in November.