Cash Hoping For Lifetime Ban on Tomic’s Father

Written by: Staff on 7th May 2013

ATP Champions tour tennis tournament in Stockholm

Cash Hoping For Lifetime Ban on Tomic’s Father

epa03143399 Australia's Pat Cash returns the ball to USA:s John McEnroe during their match in ATP Champions tour tennis tournament at Stockholm Waterfront Congress Centre in Sweden on March 13, 2012. PHOTO / SOREN ANDERSSON / SCANPIX SWEDEN** SWEDEN OUT ** ** SWEDEN OUT ** |

Pat Cash has known the Tomic family longer than most in the tennis world after Bernard and his father John regularly attended the 1987 Wimbledon champion’s former academy in Hope Island, Queensland. And Cash believes the fiasco currently centering on the pair and John’s alleged assault on hitting partner Thomas Drouet could have a positive outcome.

Cash thinks a lifetime ban for John Tomic from the ATP World Tour, in the same way that Mary Pierce’s father Jim and Damir Dokic, parent of the troubled Australian Jelena, can only be beneficial to Bernard’s career in the long term.

Like everyone else in tennis, Cash is waiting to see the outcome of the Madrid court hearing. But speaking from Spain where he is working at the Mutua Madrid Open on his CNN program Open Court, he said: “If it shows that John is guilty, I don’t think he’ll be seen on the tennis circuit any more and in the end I think that might be a good thing for Bernard in his tennis career.

“John would probably still have some input into Bernard’s career behind the scenes, but I doubt very much whether he would be at any of the tournaments. And to be perfectly honest, I think that’s a good thing.”

Cash, a columnist for the Sunday Times newspaper in Britain, is among many former Australian players, who have long questioned the positivity of father John Tomic’s influence on his son’s playing career.

Although Cash did not witness the incident, he told Australia’s Channel 9 television channel his take on the incident that saw Drouet end up with a reported broken nose and fractured vertebrae.

“They’re saying how they had an argument and Thomas was actually defending Bernard saying ‘hey listen, give him a little break, he’s quite good on clay’,” said Cash. “They went into an argument, John was very negative and said ‘hey, walk this way, come here’ and that’s when the incident happened.

“Of course there was some history before that – before they arrived in Madrid there was allegations that John had punched Bernard in the face on a practice court. Again, Thomas stood up for Bernard, and that’s being investigated by the ATP.”