Cahill hopes Rafter's stance on Tomic will be the making of him

PAT Rafter has done Bernard Tomic a service by banishing him from the national team.

RENOWNED Australian coach Darren Cahill is convinced Davis Cup captain Pat Rafter has done Bernard Tomic a service by banishing him from the national team.

Tomic began his 2013 campaign impressively in the Hopman Cup in Perth on Saturday night in defeating German Tommy Haas in three sets and looked renewed in body and spirit after a troubled finish to last season.

Cahill, a former US Open semi-finalist who coached Lleyton Hewitt and Andre Agassi with distinction, believes Tomic will respond in a similar manner to the way Marinko Matosevic rebounded after being dumped by Rafter early in the year.

"(Pat) is a guy who used to be ranked No 1 in the world and he is trying to give him as much advice as possible. It is not necessarily about Bernard Tomic," Cahill said.

"He also did it to Marinko Matosevic last year . . . and now Marinko is playing the best tennis of his career and he is the No 1-ranked Australian, so I think Patrick is really trying to change the culture in Australian tennis at the moment, be it with the players, be it with the parents, be it with some of the coaches. He is really trying to toughen everybody up.

"So, yes, he has banned Bernard Tomic from the year's first Davis Cup round but, more than likely, if Bernard pulls his head in and does the right thing, he will welcome him back into the team."

Tomic staved off five successive set points to take the first set against Haas in a tiebreaker and then broke the former world No 2 when he was serving for the match in the third to win 7-6 (6) 3-6 7-5.

Australia took the opening tie when former top-10 player Andrea Petkovic was forced to retire when leading Ashleigh Barty and now plays Serbia on Wednesday night. Tomic will play world No 1 Novak Djokovic, who won an exhibition event in Abu Dhabi on the weekend, in that tie, while Barty will face former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic.

Tomic, who said before the Hopman Cup he had refocused on tennis and was hopeful of making the top 10 by the end of this season, played with verve off the ground and seemed to have added some power to his serve with a more pronounced knee bend.

"I've worked on my serve a lot. For my height, I need to have a good serve and I got a lot of free points . . . and I think it paid off," he said.

"Once you can serve well, it is easier to get out of trouble and I think that if I continue serving like this, I have a very good chance of playing well and playing well on Wednesday night against Novak."

Cahill, who mixes work as a coaching consultant with Adidas's tennis team and an analyst for ESPN, is in Perth providing his expertise for Network Ten.

He said it was far from surprising that Tomic slid in 2012 but has no doubts he will be a top-10 player if he firms his commitment.

"As we always say, the second year is always the toughest for any player, for any junior coming through," Cahill said.

"With his ranking where it was in the middle 20s, if you had've said to me, 'Where would be a good spot for Bernie after having that good breakthrough season?' I probably would have said around the 50-mark, because you know the coaches and the players are going to work out the way you play and find your weaknesses and they did that.

"I am a big believer in the kid. I really feel that in a few years he is going to be top 10 in the world. He has already come out and said by the end of 2013 that he wants to be top 10 in the world. Maybe that is a little bit high . . . but I like the fact he is stepping up and saying those things and I think in two or three years we will see that."

Tomic, who needs to perform in Melbourne to avoid sliding towards a triple-figure ranking, is looking forward to testing his form against Djokovic.

"The last time I played him, I think it was in Toronto and he won 6-2 6-3 but I felt like it was a very close match," he said.