Bernard Tomic says he might expose corruption in Australian tennis
IN a bold statement - even for Bernard Tomic - the tennis star has threatened to lift the lid on what he believes is corruption in Australian tennis in an explosive interview.
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BERNARD Tomic has threatened to lift the lid on what he believes is corruption in Australian tennis.
Speaking exclusively to News Corp ahead of appearing as a contestant on I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! tonight, Tomic took aim at Tennis Australia.
“It is obviously all federations have problems, look at the FIFA Federation that was all corrupt and there are many things inside Tennis Australia that are also corrupt that people don’t know which I am yet to speak about maybe in the coming future that will probably be there.”
It is a bold statement even for Tomic, who is known for his straight shooting off the cuff controversial remarks.
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Despite his ongoing feud with Tennis Australia, Tomic hopes to represent his home country in the Davis Cup.
“But until that is sort of fixed with my sort of view and maybe I can get back to playing Davis Cup so it is going to take some effort from them and me as well. I for sure want to be back there representing my country and winning these matches for Australia. Obviously I have had a few problems with the Federation, so it is obviously going to take some time to change and I hope we can change in the next year or so.”
Competing on the Channel Ten reality show rules Tomic out of this year’s Davis Cup regardless.
The 25-year-old does however believe the team needs him to win.
“Everyone knows down there that they are going to need me to win Davis Cup,” a confident Tomic declared.
More generally, he added: “The Davis Cup is huge for me. Looking back I was the youngest person ever to play Davis Cup for Australia in history at 15 or whatever the record stands. And I’ve won 19 or 20 matches and lost five so my percentage is probably really, really big. [At] the last Davis Cup we lost the semi’s to Belgium and I could have won that last match and maybe been in the final of the Davis Cup playing in Australia, we haven’t won a Davis Cup in 15 years. The same thing happened a couple of years back where I made the semi-finals and Nick (Kyrgios) wasn’t playing, he had his own problems with the Federation at that time and I lost because Nick wasn’t there at the semi’s against the Murray’s in Glasgow.”
Tomic is known for his many blow ups and after not qualifying for the Australian Open bragged about how rich he is, saying he will just “count my millions”.
He took much of the last year off, partying around the world.
While not good for his ranking, he’s now around 143, Tomic needed time out.
“After Wimbledon I didn’t play for two-and-a-half to three months one tournament until the US Open, I sort of had a bit of a holiday and stuff. It was something I needed. We are all human and I’ve sacrificed so much since I was seven or eight years old until now or prior to last year. It has been 17 or 18 years I have been on tour playing tennis, I just needed a break for the last six to 12 months. Maybe I should have gone away from it completely and had a break but I was still there, still playing some matches, playing some tournaments, which wasn’t really the smart thing to do because I wasn’t even training half the time.”
He continued: “My heart wasn’t in it, my mind wasn’t in it and I was still playing guys top 30 or 40 in the world and I still managed to win a couple of matches here and there. I don’t know how I did that but in July I took two or three months off and everyone knows when you are not playing tennis for a couple of months you lose your ranking and you lose your spots.”
Tomic has vowed to return to form, after the jungle that is.
“It is nothing I haven’t done before,” he said. “A couple of years back I was also 150 in the world after I had hip surgery I went to 150 in the world ... and one year after that I went to 16 or 17 in the world. It is not a big problem for me, I have got to just stay healthy and play a lot of matches the next six to 12 months and get my ranking back to where I should be.”
Where does Tomic feel he should be ranked?
“Definitely in the top 20 and push to become a top 10 player,” he declared. “Maybe top five in the world is my goal, being number one and winning 15 grand slams is a bit not realistic right now, and becoming Roger Federer. I feel that if I do the right things over the next five or 10 years I could probably win some majors and that is something I am going to push forward to.”
* The journalist is in South Africa covering I’m A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here! as a guest of Channel Ten.
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