Contentious tennis star Bernard Tomic has caused controversy once again after hurling insults at former tennis champion Lleyton Hewitt, in a bizarre tirade at the Australian Open.
Tomic, who was once ranked as high as 17th in the world, didn’t mince his words when it came to answering questions about his feelings on Hewitt, in a post-match conference.
“It’s all Lleyton. I’m going to say it honestly — no one likes him anymore.” Tomic said.
Tomic continued, “He’s just doing the wrong thing. He’s playing Davis Cup – I thought he was retired. He’s playing all these matches and stuff like this. You know what I mean? He used to hate Tennis Australia. It’s weird. And now he loves them. What’s happened here?”
Amongst the many insults, Tomic accused the 2005 Australian Open runner-up of being a bad leader and causing issues amongst current Australian tennis players.
“We have a lot of issues that not a lot of players are happy about. We all know who those players are. Myself, (Thanasi) Kokkinakis, (Nick) Kyrgios. I hope he can get moved and we can go back to having a good captain. Go away. Like, literally. If you’ve retired, why are you still in tennis?”
Tomic went so far as to claim that Hewitt is promoting Australian tennis talent for his own financial gain.
“All these guys that got wildcards are under a system … Polmans, Bolty, Jordan Thompson.”
Tomic continued, “They’re all under Lleyton’s wing under the management company. It’s all conflict of interest. And then he’s in Davis Cup and he’s doing the wrong thing and everyone’s leaving.”
The explosive comments were made after a brutal loss in the first night of the grand slam, Tomic losing in straight sets to sixth seed Marin Cilic.
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