Relations Between Pat Rafter and Bernard Tomic Thawing Slowly

Written by: Staff on 22nd January 2013

Relations Between Pat Rafter and Bernard Tomic Thawing Slowly

epa03543885 Bernard Tomic of Australia in action during his 3rd round match against Roger Federer of Switzerland at the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 19 January 2013. EPA/JOE CASTRO AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT |

The peace process between Australian Davis Cup captain Patrick Rafter and the outcast Bernard Tomic is ongoing but the 20 year-old remains on the suspended list for next month’s Asia/Oceania Zone Group One tie against Chinese Taipei in Kaohsiung City.

“The reason we left him out was hopefully to teach him a lesson ,” said Rafter after naming a quartet of Lleyton Hewitt, Marinko Matosevic, Matt Ebden and Chris Guccione.

And Rafter was happy with the way Tomic responded, winning a first ever ATP World Tour title at the Apia International in Sydney and then winning a couple of rounds at the Australian Open before being halted by Roger Federer.

“I think he came back at us pretty well. I think he used that anger, channeled it, and played some great tennis here,” continued Rafter.

“I don’t mind how he gets up to playing great tennis. If he wants to use that anger as a catalyst to play great tennis, that’s fine. Obviously, it’s in our interest for him to play well. Whatever spurs him on.”

Rafter revealed he had a long clear-the-air conversation with Tomic on Sunday, the day after the loss to Federer. Previously Tomic had said he didn’t expect the pair to speak until September but Rafter said: “It’s the first time I made contact with him since early November. We had a great conversation.

“Obviously I spoke to him about just going forward, what he thinks about Davis Cup in the future, if he wants to be part of the team. It was really important for us to have contact straightaway. We hadn’t made any contact.

“He’s playing great tennis and it’s a shame not to have him available for the first one in some ways, but in other ways we have to stand firm on our decision not to have him in this team.”

However Rafter is ready to welcome back Tomic in the next tie, scheduled for April if Australia beat Chinese Taipei who will have to do without their leading player, 61st ranked Yen-Hsun Lu, who has declared himself unavailable. “Providing we win, I hope he’ll be available,” said the captain. “He’ll be part of the selection team like everyone else. We need to work things out. Hopefully we’re still on good terms. I think our last conversation was that. He needs to respect me and I need to respect him.”

Rafter revealed a change on the Australian bench. Josh Eagle will take over as coach from 67 year-old Tony Roche who will from now on be termed the team mentor.

“Rochey has a limited schedule on the road with the guys, but he’ll be attending Davis Cup ties and being there doing a very similar role to what I was doing before,” said Rafter.

“Josh will be spending 30 weeks on the road with the guys, so we feel like he can see the guys and be around them a lot more. So I think we have a really good balance now, so I’m very happy with that.

©Daily tennis News Wire

Topics: Australian Open, Australian tennis news, Bernard Tomic, Chris Guccione. ATP, Davis Cup, Lleyton Hewitt, Marinko Matosevic, Matt Ebden, Pat Rafter, Patrick Rafter