Tomic takes shot at Tennis Australia and Lleyton Hewitt

Bernard Tomic has lashed out at Lleyton Hewitt and claimed Australia can’t beat Germany in Davis Cup without him.

Bernard Tomic has taken a swipe at Tennis Australia and Lleyton Hewitt. Picture: AAP

Australia’s former No.1 player ­Bernard Tomic has accused Tennis Australia of being corrupt and vowed to turn his career around and “prove everyone wrong’’ in a display of bravado after he left the reality television show I’m a Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here.

He expressed his desire to play Davis Cup again and dismissed Davis Cup captain Lleyton ­Hewitt’s assertion that it was “highly doubtful’’ that Tomic would play for Australia again.

“I don’t care what Lleyton said, I never lost to him,’’ 25-year-old Tomic said. “They know they can’t win without me and I know they can’t win without me so it’s a tough situation but I wish them luck and success with the coming tie (against Germany in Brisbane).”

Tomic admitted he spent the last year “mucking around’’ instead of playing tennis while his world ranking plummeted but said he was determined to return to the world’s top 20. “I was in the same position a couple of years back and managed to be a top 16, top 17 player a year after that so I’m going to turn this around and it’s my goal to prove everyone wrong and I’ve done that throughout my career,’’ he said. “I’m excited for the challenge.’’

Tomic denied he suffered from depression before he joined the ­reality show and said he was not mentally fragile. “I got to top 16, top 17 among the world’s best ­tennis players in one of the biggest sports in the world,’’ he said. “You can’t get to where I’ve got to if you’re not mentally strong.”

He reiterated his previous claim of corruption within Tennis Australia. “We’ve seen it with the FIFA federation, how they were corrupt and I know it’s in there,’’ he said. “We have a few wrong people in that organisation and I hope that can change and I hope the best players can be playing Davis Cup again.’’

Concern for Tomic’s mental state has trumped criticism of his premature departure from the reality television show in widespread public reaction to the wayward tennis star’s most recent escapade.

Psychologists and fellow athletes are among those who have offered support to Tomic, whose tennis career is in free fall and whose public utterances reveal a young man who is deeply confused about his life and his future. Tomic told fellow contestants on the reality program that he was ­depressed and had not had a childhood because of tennis demands.

Rugby league star Benji Marshall was among the first to reach out to Tomic, posting a video to website 20Four in which he offered to help him.

“I actually feel really sorry for him, talking about having depression and being in the spotlight since he was a very young age and having a struggle with it,’’ Marshall said. “We need to get around our athletes and help out where we can. With all the people around Bernard, hopefully he has that ­support because times do get tough in the spotlight. I know I have been there. I don’t know ­Bernard but I am always there to talk if anyone needs to talk.’’

The founder of athlete mental health advisory group Crossing The Line, Gearoid Towey, said he saw an athlete in pain and suffering from burnout. He described Tomic’s abrupt departure from the show as “a call for help’’.

“He’s been displaying symptoms of burnout for a long time,’’ Towey said. “He was a child star and I don’t think that ever came without a lot of pressure. Burnout can present itself in many different forms and the thing that’s missing is he isn’t giving himself the opportunity, or doesn’t have the opportunity, to step away from his sport for an extended period of time.

“You need an independent safe space to tend to the human part of psychology. He needs people to help him who don’t have a vested interest in the outcome and have no preconceptions. That’s the ideal scenario: to have the opportunity to step away and build up some self-awareness and then come back with new energy.”

Towey would not advise Tomic to return to tennis immediately, saying it was a “textbook reaction’’ to being in an alien environment like the reality show.

“He took himself out of the ­tennis bubble, but even if sport is an unhappy place for you, it’s a comfort zone for you.’’

Leading sports psychologist Jeff Bond, who worked with Pat Cash in the 1980s, warned that Tomic needed professional counselling. “I am generally concerned when anyone says they are ­depressed,” he said. “I hope he seeks out a professional to run his thinking by and get some objective feedback, someone he trusts so he can take advantage of this new ­approach.’’

Child and adolescent psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg accused the Ten Network of setting up Tomic by putting him on the ­reality program.

“He didn’t seem to me to be in a psychological state to be put through what he was put through,’’ Carr-Gregg said.

With AAP