Stosur Offers Some Tough Love To Tomic

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 11th December 2012

Stosur Offers Some Tough Love To Tomic

epa03447952 Samantha Stosur of Australia returns the ball to Maria Sharapova of Russia during their match at the round-robin stage of the WTA Championships tennis tournament in Istanbul, Turkey, 26 October 2012. EPA/TOLGA BOZOGLU |

Battling Australian Samantha Stosur has some tough love for errant compatriot Bernard Tomic as the youngster continues to head off the rails with what was once a promising tennis career.

Former French Open winner Stosur, whose own level has dropped to ninth on the WTA, said that the 20-year-old bad boy of the Aussie game needs to get serious about his tennis.

Tomic, who admitted to “tanking” an autumn match when he didn’t feel much like playing, was dropped form the national Davis Cup team to face Taiwan in February in a never-ending struggle to rejoin the elite World Group. As usual, 31-year-old Lleyton Hewitt should be leading that charge.

Stosur barely spared Tomic’s feeling in her assessment of his situation: “What are you doing? Are you wanting to play tennis?,” she told local media. “If you are, then give it 100 per cent because you only get one crack at it.

“He’s going to have to decide what he wants to do and how he’s going to approach his career. Until that improves in a lot of people’s eyes, he’s going to have to deal with things like being dropped out of the Davis Cup team.”

Tomic has dropped on the ATP list from 27th in June to 52nd.

Stosur sounds like she’s got Tomic’s back and hopes he does not waste his talent. “That’s probably the most disappointing thing for a lot of people on the outside – that he’s got this unbelievable tennis ability and he’s not really using it at the moment.

“So I think everyone would like to see him knuckle down and do his best and see where that gets him.”